.3.7L63 
FR39- 


The  ^'Makings"  of 
The  Lincobi  Association 

of  Jersey  City 


By  Wittiam  H.  Riduudmn 


X 


LINCOLN  ROOM 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


/6V  h/rw    /uJA£^l\4^\A.t^  'y.  LcCy^mi  jij, 


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'yitojt  h-^f^ciy^uJic   A/vL    kj\ lAX-^vMyr^fj    it'  to    iKe 


Abraham  Lincoln  anil  "  Tliail."  A  |io|inlar  [liiturp  in  <prlain  Jersey  C^ity  liumes  in  Civil  War  tinica. 


The  ^^Makings'  of 
The  Lincohi  Association 

of  Jersey  City 


j^gf 


A  Souvenir  of  the  Dinner  at  the  Carteret  Club  Commemo- 
rating the  One  Hundred  and  Tenth  Anniversary 
of  the  Birth  of  Abraham  Lincoln 


By  William  H.  Richardson 


The  Jersey  City  Printing  Company 
1919 


Officers  of  the  Lincoln  Association 
of  Jersey  City,  1919 

President  .  .  Robert  A.  Alberts,    123   Jewett  Ave.,   Jersey  City 

1st  Vice   President  .  Wilbur  E.  Mallalieu,  38  Bentley  Ave.,  Jersey  City 

2nd  Vice  President  .  C.  C.  Wilson,  Lincoln  High  School,  Jersey  City 

Treasurer  .        .  .  Otto   H.    Lohsen,   238a   Academy   St.,   Jersey    City 

Historian  .        .  .  John  H.  Ward,  34  Kensington  Ave.,  Jersey  City 

Secretary  .       .  .  James  W.  Gopsill,  381  Fairmount  Ave.,  Jersey  City 

Executive  Committee,  1919 

Judge  John  A.    Blair,  Union   League  Club,  Jersey  City 

Charles  F.  Case,  The  Fairmount,  Jersey  City 

Gen.  Wm.  C.  Heppenheimer,  291    Montgomery  St.,  Jersey  City 

Hon.   Marshall  Van  Winkle,    100  Glenwood  Ave.,  Jersey  City 

Col.   George   T.   Vickers,   22   Duncan   Ave.,   Jersey   City 

George  C.  Warren,  Jr.,  94  Kensington  Ave.,  Jersey  City 

William   H.   Richardson,   250  Union  St.,    Jersey  City 

James   B.   Throckmorton,   51    Glenwood  Ave.,   Jersey  City 

Dr.   W.   F.   Randolph,  67   Kensington  Ave.,  Jersey  City 

Clarence   M.   Owens,    15   Clifton   Terrace,   Weehawken 

George  J.   McEwan,  Summit  Ave.  and  De   Mott  St.,  West  Hoboken 

Willis    J.    Tuers,    21     Park    St.,    Jersey    City 

Committee  on  Publication 

Hon.  Marshall  Van  Winkle,  John  H.  Ward,  Col.  George  T.  Vickers 


^13  ■  ^U3 


The  Activities  of  the  Lincoln  Association, 1867-1919 


15. 


In  the  lines  below,  Is  compiled  a  list  of  the  functions  celebrated 
by  the  Lincoln  Association  from  the  earliest  records  available,  down  to 
the  present  time.     It  is  subject,  of  course,  to  verification. 

1867.      Feb.    12.      Zschau's  Union  House.     Foundation.     David  W. 

Weiss,  Benjamin  Russell,  Earl  P.  Lane,  Prof. 
Charles  Knowles,  Charles  Baker,  Dietrich  Kuhn, 
Peter  Kolb,  Charles  A.  Zschau. 

Zschau's  Union  House.  Memorial  and  patriotic 
observance. 

Zschau's  Union  House.  Organization.  President, 
David  W.  Weiss;  Vice  President,  Benjamin 
Russell;  Secretary,  Wm.  B.  Dunning;  treasurer. 
Earl  P.  Lane;  steward,  Charles  A.  Zschau. 

Zschau's   Union    House.      Presentation   of  album 

to  President  Weiss. 
Zschau's  Union  House.     Theme,  the  Emancipation 

Proclamation. 

Zschau's  Union  House.      Social  evening. 
Library  Hall.     Largely  attended  Ball. 
Zschau's   Union   House.      Presentation  of  Watch 
to  Secretary  Dunning. 


868. 


April 
May 

Sept. 

Oct. 

Nov. 
Dec. 
Feb. 


5. 


7. 

24. 

6. 


Annual  Dinners: 


1868. 
1869. 
1870. 
1871. 
1872. 
1873. 
1874. 
1875. 
1876. 
1877. 
1878. 
1879. 
1880. 
1881. 
1882. 
1883. 
1884. 
1885. 
1886. 
1887. 


Date 

Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 


12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
11. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
11. 


Given  at 

Taylor's  Hotel. 
Cooper's  Hall 

(no  data) 
Zschau's  Union  House. 
Zschau's  Union  House. 
Zschau's  Union  House. 
Zschau's  Union   House. 
Zschau's  Union  House. 
Zschau's  Union  House. 
Philadelphia   Hotel. 
Continental  Hotel. 
Philadelphia  Hotel. 
Taylor's  Hotel. 
Taylor's  Hotel. 
Taylor's  Hotel. 
Taylor's   Hotel. 
Taylor's  Hotel. 
Taylor's  Hotel. 
Taylor's  Hotel. 
Taylor's  Hotel. 


President 


David  W.   Weiss 
David  W.  Wei 
David  W.  Wei 
David  W.  Wei 
David  W.  Wei 
David  W.  Wei 
David  W.  Wei 
David  W.  Wei 
David  W.  Wei 
David  W.  Wei 
David  W.  Wei 
Maj.  David  A.  Peloubet. 
Maj.  David  A.  Peloubet. 
James    Gopsill. 
James    Gopsill. 
James    Gopsill. 
James    Gopsill. 
John  W.    Pangborn. 
John  W.    Pangborn. 
John  W.    Pangborn. 


ss. 
ss. 
ss. 
ss. 
ss. 
ss. 
ss. 
ss. 
ss. 
ss. 


1888, 

1889 

1890 

1891 

1892, 

1893 

1894 

1895 

1896 

1897 

1898 

1899 

1900 

1901 

1902 

1903 

1904 

1905 

1906 

1907 

1908 

1909 

liant 

1910 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1915 

1916 

1917 

1918 

1919 


Date 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 
The  1909 
and 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

Feb. 


memora 


Given  at 

Taylor's  Hotel. 
Taylor's  Hotel. 
Taylor's  Hotel. 
Taylor's  Hotel. 
Taylor's  Hotel. 
Hotel  Washington. 
Hotel  Washington. 
Taylor's   Hotel. 


Taylor's  Hotel. 

Taylor's  Hotel. 

Taylor's  Hotel. 

Taylor's   Hotel. 

Jersey  City  Club. 

Jersey  City  Club. 

Jersey  City  Club. 

Jersey  City  Club. 

Jersey  City  Club. 

Jersey  City  Club. 

Jersey  City  Club. 

Jersey  City  Club. 

Jersey  City  Club. 

Jersey  City  Club, 
function — the  Centenary 
ble. 

2.  Jersey  City  Club. 

3.  Jersey  City  Club. 
2.  Jersey  City  Club. 
2.  Jersey  City  Club. 
2.  Jersey  City  Club. 
2.  Jersey  City  Club, 
2.  Jersey  City  Club. 
2.  Jersey  City  Club. 
2.      Carteret  Club. 

2.      Carteret  Club. 


President 

Hon.   Gilbert  Collins 
Maj.  Z.  K.  Pangborn. 
Flavel  McGee. 
John  A.    Blair. 
John  A  .Walker. 
Charles  F.  Case. 
Col.  Asa  W.  Dickinson. 
John  M.   Jones. 
Simeon  H.    Smith. 
Henry   M.    Nevius. 
Col.   Chas.  W.  Fuller 
Col.  Sheffield  Phelps. 
Joseph  A.  Dear. 
George  F.    Perkins. 
E.  B.  Bacon. 
A.  J.  Newbury. 
Harry  Louderbough 
Edmund  Wilson. 
Charles  W.  Parker. 
James  S.  Erwin. 
Dr.    Henry  Spence. 
Marshall  Van  Winkle, 
was  unusually  bril- 


Dinner — ' 


Dr.  Ulamor  Allen. 
Dr.  Henry  Snyder. 
David  R.  Daly. 
Dr.GordonK.  Dickinson. 
James  B.  Vredenburgh 
Jus.  Francis  J.  Swayze 
Col.  Austen  Colgate. 
Geo.  C.  Warren,  Jr. 
Col.  Geo.  T.  Vickers. 
Robert  A.  Alberts. 


Secretaries. 

from 
from 


Wm.  B.  Dunning. 

John  W.  Herbert,  Jr. 

George  J.  Medole.  from 

Thomas  Milburn  Gopsill.  from 

Robert   B.   Gray.  ,  from 

Robert   A.   Alberts.  from 

James  W.  Gopsill.  from 

Treasurers. 

Earl  P.  Lane.  from 

Marmaduke  Tilden.  from 

Otto  H.  Lohsen.  from 


1867  to 
1878  to 
1885  to 
1893  to 
1904  to 
1913  to 
1919 


1867 
1885 
1905 


to 
to 


1877. 
1884. 
1892. 
1903. 
1912. 
1918. 


868. 
904. 


A  Few  Words  From  a  Pleased  Com  mi  I  tee 


This  little  book  owes  its  publication  to  two  men.  President  Robert 
A.  Alberts  and  Mr.  William  H.  Richardson.  The  first  suggestion  that 
a  little  book  showing  the  genesis  of  our  Lincoln  Association  would  be 
the  best  souvenir  of  our  Victory  Dinner  came  from  Mr.  Alberts;  and 
his  suggestion  at  once  became  a  concrete  plan  when  he  stated  that  Mr. 
Richardson  was  the  man  to  write  the  book.  Our  Committee  on  Pub- 
lication was  appointed  to  supervise  the  work;  but  our  labor  has  been 
very  slight  indeed.  When  we  read  the  proof  submitted  by  Mr.  Richard- 
son, we  found  a  well  done  and  finished  piece  of  work. 

As  this  little  book  is  read  by  our  members,  we  are  sure  they  will 
appreciate  Mr.  Richardson's  industry  and  good  judgment  in  the  selection 
and  arrangement  of  his  material.  His  flowing  narrative  will  be  especially 
interesting  to  our  older  members ;  and  our  younger  members  will  learn 
from  the  vivid  pictures  of  local  conditions  in  this  little  book  much  that 
they  should  know  about  the  events  of  those  older  days  when  our  country 
was  at  a  great  crisis  comparable  only  with  the  great  crisis  that  we  have 
just  passed.  Mr.  Richardson  is  entitled  to  the  thanks  of  our  Association 
for  his  well  done  labor  of  love;  and  it  is  our  great  pleasure  to  preface 
this  little  book  with  these  few  words  of  acknowledgment  and  to  sincerely 
thank  him  in  the  name  of  the  Lincoln  Association. 

The  Committee  also  gratefully  acknowledges  the  courtesy  of 
one  of  our  members,  Mr.  E.  F.  Chilton,  of  the  Standard  Engravmg 
Company,  New  York,  who  has  taken  personal  interest  in  the  production 
of  the  full  page  engravings  with  which  this  souvenir  is  embellished. 

MARSHALL  VAN  WINKLE,  Chairman 
GEORGE  T.  VICKERS 
JOHN  H.  WARD 

Committee  on  Publication. 


The  "Makings"  of  the  Lincoln  Association 


According  to  the  literature  of  the  Lincoln  Association  of  Jersey 
City,  we  are  contemplating  this  evening,  the  "fifty-fourth  Annual  Ban- 
quet" of  this  time-honored  organization.  One  would  think  that  in 
more  than  half  a  century  of  forensic  endeavor,  with  all  the  wealth  of 
mental  culture  that  has  been  concentrated  upon  the  life  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  and  the  lessons  to  be  drawn  from  it, 
there  would  hardly  be  a  phase  left  that 
had  a  shade  of  novelty  in  it.  However, 
it  has  seemed  to  me  that  a  story  of  the 
times  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  about  the 
people  of  Jersey  City  who  believed  in  him 
— as  well  as  about  some  who  did  not — 
would  be  of  interest,  and  might  be  help- 
ful in  another  great  crisis  in  human  history. 
For  we  do  forget.  So  I  have  chosen  for 
the  title  of  the  story  "The  'Makings'  of  the 
Lincoln  Association,"  in  which  I  want  to 
present  as  vivid  a  picture  as  possible  of 
the  conditions  under  which  the  Lincoln 
ideal  was  nurtured  in  Jersey  City. 

Just  where  to  start  the  story  is  very 
difficult  to  say.  Jersey  City  was  chartered 
February  22,  1838;  her  first  mayor,  and 
her  first  citizen  for  a  long,  long  lifetime, 
was  born  in  Connecticut,  and  was  eminent 
in  the  work  of  the  American  Colonization 
Society.  Dudley  S.  Gregory's  acquaintance  with  the  principles  that 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  going  to  die  for,  was  more  than  theoretical  that 
far  back.  The  politics  of  the  time  were  already  effervescing  with  the 
oratory  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Societies.  Henry  D.  Holt  had  started  his 
Jersey  City  Advertiser  and  Bergen  Republican  in  I  838,  and  was  printing 
stories  now  and  then  about  the  iniquitous  commerce  in  the  blacks,  and  for 
years  his  voice  and  pen  were  active  in  the  cause  which  came  to  a  climax 
a  little  more  than  a  score  of  years  later. 

5 


Hon.  Dutlle\    S.  Gregorj 


It  will  be  pertinent  to  refer  to  the  decidedly  forward  program  of 
the  forty-six  members  of  the  Particular  Baptist  Church  of  Jersey  City 
and  Harsimus,  who  withdrew  from  that  select  institution  in  1842,  to 
found  a  new  Baptist  Church  with  this  covenant:  "A  slave-holder, 
or  one  who  traffics  in  human  flesh,  is  not  a  fit  member  for  a  Gospel 
Church;  it  w-ould  be  sinful  for  one  to  sit  down  and  commune  with  him." 
Then  there  was  a  little  company  of  Congregationalists  who  worshipped 
at  the  southeast  corner  of  Grove  Street  and  Railroad  Avenue,  on  part  of 
what  is  J.  W.  Greene's  present  building  site,  most  all  of  them  so  far 
as  we  can  give  locality  to  family  names,  originating  in  New  England, 
who  were  exponents  of  the  ideas  of  Wm.  Lloyd  Garrison.  So  it  may 
be  readily  seen  that  The  Foundation  Company  which  later  merged 
into  the  Lincoln  Association  was  here  as  long  as  Jersey  City. 

Without  filling  in  pages  of  testimony  to  support  the  argument, 
I  may  say  briefly  that  the  cult  did  not  grow  any  less  feeble  in  Jersey 
City  than  anywhere  else.  Coming  rapidly  down  the  years  to  the  time 
of  those  famous  debates  with  Douglas,  we  find  in  the  Telegraph,  the 
local  democratic  newspaper,  the  following  singularly  unprophetic  intro- 
duction of  Abraham  Lincoln:  "Lincoln,  who  should  thereafter  be 
known  as  the  brainless  Bob  O'Link  of  the  Prairies  *  *  *  has 
succeeded  in  making  a  Jay  of  himself  and  his  chattering  will  be  ap- 
preciated accordingly."  Well,  history  somehow  has  vindicated  the 
champion  of  human  rights  and  liberties! 

Speaking  of  Douglas'  reference  to  Lincoln's  having  started  life 
in  a  grocery,  the  same  local  authority  solemnly  informs  us  that  "in 
Illinois  as  in  many  other  parts  of  the  west,  'grocery'  is  synonymous  with 
'groggery.'  "  Other  issues  of  about  the  same  era  tell  us  that  Wm. 
Lloyd  Garrison  was  an  "abolitionist  and  atheist" — how  smoothly  that 
alliterative  allusion  must  have  slid  from  the  Telegraphic  pen!  Fred 
Douglass  was  always  referred  to  as  a  "nigger;  "  a  gentleman,  afterward 
slightly  renowned  in  American  journalism,  was  commonly  called  the 
"arch-nigger  of  the  Tribune."  Here  is  a  little  jingle  published  January 
19,  1857,  to  help  the  cause  along: 

"Othello  is  the  negro  race, 

lago  is  their  Greeley ! 
And  if  the  darkies  follow  him 

He'll  bamboozle  them  ginteelley!" 

Perhaps  the  reason  lago  put  it  over  was  that  the  "darkies"  couldn't 
or  wouldn't  read  the  Telegraph  and  be  led  to  avert  the  bamboozlement. 
Prominent  exponents  of  the  New  Thought  in  democracy — Wright, 
Phillips,  Higginson,  Foster,  Tappan,  Garrison,  et  al. — were  editorially 

6 


consigned  "to  cells  in  the  lunatic  asylum  where  they  should  be  locked 
until  satan  should  come  to  escort  them  to  Brimstonedom." 

Henry  D.  Holt's  paper  then  was  known  as  the  Sentinel;  he  was 
its  "black  republican"  editor  and  he  was  a  man  of  whom  we  can  well 
be  proud  when  we  recount  the  hot  times  in  the  old  town  of  three  score 
years  ago;  when  the  Telegraph  was  jammed  with  utterances  of  incon- 
ceivable rankness.  "That  eminent  humbug,  the  learned  blacksmith,  one 
of  the  most  impudent  meddlers  in  the  Union,"  gets  his  one  day,  also; 
Horace  Greeley,  William  H.  Seward  and  John  Brown  were  burned  in 
effigy  by  certain  Princeton  students  in  1859,  and  the  pleasantry  was 
deliciously  commented  upon.  On  another  occasion  the  editor  labels  and 
lambasts  his  political  opposites,  as  "Abolitionists,  Atheists,  Deists,  Infidels 
and  other  advocates  of  idiotic  schemes  of  disunion,  anarchy  and  treason.  ' 

When  John  Brown's  raid  and  its  tragic  consequences  got  into  the 
Telegraph,  it  featured  that  side  of  the  story  that  somebody  or  bodies  in 
Jersey  City  must  have  wanted  to  read:  the  offer  of  South  Carohnians  who 
wanted  John  Brown  hung  with  a  home-grown  cotton  rope;  the  anxiety  of 
Mrs.  Mahala  Doyle  to  bathe  her  hands  in  his  blood,  and  her  sending  a 
halter  woven  by  her  slaves  for  his  execution.  A  Unitarian  church  was 
then  located  at  the  southeast  corner  of  Montgomery  and  Grove  Streets;  its 
minister  was  Rev.  O.  B.  Frothingham.  He  was  quite  as  radical  in  his  views 
as  the  Telegraph — only  from  another  angle — and  once  Mr.  Frothingham 
said  some  things  in  a  public  address  which  prompted  the  following 
comment  in  the  newspaper:  "Mr.  Frothingham  came  to  us  from  a 
witch-burning  region,  but  we  had  hoped  that  the  pure  union  atmosphere 
(!)  of  Jersey  City  miight  lead  him  to  forsake  the  error  of  his  ways. 
*  *  *  The  Black  Republican  Preacher  wishes  to  free  any  and 
every  nigger  even  at  the  expense  of  the  church,  the  Constitution,  the 
Union,  and  even  the  lives  and  property  of  every  white  man  in  the  country 
who  dares  to  differ  with  him  in  opinion.  Thank  God  there  is  room 
in  our  State  Lunatic  Asylum  for  such  crazy  fanatics."  The  "Frothy- 
ham"  church  was  set  on  fire  about  that  time  and  the  Unitarians  had 
very  excellent  reasons  for  believing  that  it  was  of  incendiary  origin; 
the  Telegraph  sought,  on  the  other  hand,  to  prove  a  "copperhead"  alibi, 
with  the  same  success  that  Lady  Macbeth  did,  for  protesting  too  much. 

There  was  a  "recognition"  of  the  Bethesda  Baptist  Anti-Slavery 
and  Free  Mission  Church  on  July  I  1,  1858,  and  the  Telegraph  reports 
that  "the  sentiments  preached  there  would  be  quite  appropriate  in  an 
assembly  of  Black  Republicans,  but  out  of  place  in  a  pulpit  on  the 
Lord's  Day.     It  appears  to  have  become  the  fashion  of  late  with  preachers 

7 


to  close  their  bibles  and  devote  their  time  to  the  temporal  welfare  of 
niggers  and  nigger  lovers." 

Father  J.  Kelly,  Pastor  of  St.  Peter's,  82  Grand  St.,  had  an 
advertisement  in  the  Telegraph  of  September  3.  1857,  certifying  to  the 
fact  that  "Elizabeth  Daniel  had  not  been  married  to  the  mulatto  John 
Bravvery  and  that  the  rumor  against  Thomas  Doyle  and  his  wife,  and 
which  unfortunately  has  exposed  them  to  the  peril  of  their  lives  is  false." 

Henry  Ward  Beecher  lectured  in  Metropolitan  Hall,  December 
15,  1858,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Firemen's  Fund;  the  Telegraph  charac- 
terized the  lecture  as  "savoring  somewhat  of  niggerism" — which  is 
probably  just  what  it  did  if  Henry  Ward  Beecher's  faculties  were 
functioning  properly  in  1858.  These  are  but  a  few  more  instances 
to  prove  the  need  of  the  coming  Lincoln  Association,  at  least ! 

The  1860  Before  the   Lincoln  campaign   of    I860,  the   Telegraph  was  suc- 

Campaign  ceeded — and  superseded  in  capacity  for  scurrility — by  the  American 
Standard,  why  so  named  one  may  well  wonder  if  he  should  ever  take 
occasion  to  peruse  its  files.  In  that  campaign  it  supported  John  Bell 
of  Tennessee  for  President,  and  Edward  Everett  of  Massachusetts 
for  Vice-President — with  the  tremendously  important  historical  effect 
of  contributing  to  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  That  result,  how- 
ever, owed  little  of  its  importance  to  this  State;  the  Standard  un- 
graciously showed  its  feelings  in  a  long  editorial  in  which  it  lauded 
"New  Jersey:  faithful  among  the  faithless,  she  alone  of  all  the  free 
states  has  been  mindful  of  the  advice  of  Washington  and  has  arrayed 
herself  against  the  geographical  and  sectional  party  his  prescience  fore- 
saw." Perhaps  we  may  find  a  claim  in  that  sentence  that  may  reasonably 
connect  us  with  the  Father  of  our  Country,  too.  Right  underneath  that 
same  editorial  it  publishes  a  reprint  from  the  Churchman  of  New  York, 
reviewing  and  applauding  the  scriptural  arguments  for  the  institution  of 
slavery. 

Passing  over  the  months  of  the  excessively  vituperative  campaign 
which  resulted  in  the  election  of  Lincoln,  and  contemplating  his  journey 
to  Washington  for  inauguration,  doubtless  there  are  some  present 
to-night  who  will  recall  his  reception  in  Jersey  City  when  he  passed 
through  here  on  February  21,  186L  One  of  the  papers  was  unkind 
enough  to  recall  the  tenor  of  New  Jersey's  voting  when  commenting 
upon  the  stupendous  crowds  gathered  to  greet  the  President-elect.  Mr. 
Lincoln  had  come  over  from  New  York  on  the  new  ferryboat  Jackson 
under  special  command  of  Commodore  Woolsey,  superintendent  of  the 
ferry.     Dodworth's  Celebrated  Cotillion  Band,  a  famous  musical  aggre- 

8 


M 


r. 


gation  of  the  day,  was  on  board  and  discoursed  appropriate  music. 
When  the  boat  was  in  the  middle  of  the  river  Aldmn.  Hardenbergh 
made  a  neat  speech,  which  was  reported  in  full,  while  Mr.  Lincoln 
is  said  to  have  replied  in  "a  few  apt  words,"  which  were  not  printed 
in  full. 

In  the  throng  on  the  Jackson,  Mr.  Lincoln  recognized  and  chat- 
led  with  Hon.  D.  S.  Gregory,  who  had  been  his  colleague  in  Congress. 
A  pleasing  incident  is  recorded  of  his  having  stooped  over  to  kiss 
"the  infant  daughter  of  the  late  T.  L.  Smith,"  and  saying  as  he  did 
so.  "we  cheerfully  welcome  the  little  lambs."  I  have  often  wondered 
who  and  where  the  infant  daughter  of  the  late  T.  L.  Smith  is  now 
and  whether  she  had  infant  daughters  to  whom  she  could  tell  the 
pretty  story! 

When  the  Presidential  party  arrived  at  the  station  there  was  an 

T  *  1     ' 

ovation.      Judge  William  L.   Dayton  welcomed   Mr.   Lincoln  to   New    '^mcoin  s 

Jersey   with    a    very   able'  address,    and   to   that    Mr.    Lincoln    replied,    "^         -         j 

together  with  some  remarks  that  did  not  get  into  print:      "Ladies  and 

Gentlemen  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey:  I  shall  only  very  briefly  thank 

you    for   the  very  warm  and  kind   reception   you   have  given   me,   and 

I   shall  try  to  make  myself  heard  if  possible.      Not  that  I  thank  you 

personally  for  the  reception,  but  only  as  the  temporary  representative  of 

a  great  nation.     I  have  been  met  in  the  same  way  all  through  my  journey, 

and  as  I  had  often  to  do  in  other  places,  I  am  sure  you  will  not  feel 

dissatisfied  with  me  for  merely  greeting  you  with  a  sincere  farewell  for 

the  present.      You  have   met  me  through   your  own   kind   and  valued 

friend  Judge  Dayton,  a  man  who  is  an  honor  to  any  State  in  this  great 

Union,  and  who  has  said  enough  to  include  my  own  response  if  I  had 

not  uttered   a  word.      Most  heartily  do   I  endorse  every   sentiment   he 

has  expressed ;  and  I  sincerely  trust  you  will  find  me  everything  which 

the  present  interest  of  the  country  demands." 

It  was  rather  a  modest  speech  for  the  man  who  had  crossed  swords 
with  the  giant  Douglas!  As  he  closed  his  brief  acknowledgment, 
Mr.  Lincoln's  attention  was  directed  to  the  balconies  of  the  station, 
crowded  with  elegantly  dressed  ladies,  "an  unbroken  array  of  the  youth, 
beauty  and  intelligence  of  Jersey  City."  So  he  expressed  his  admiration 
of  the  spectacle  and  put  a  graceful  period  to  his  talk  by  a  playful 
allusion  to  a  familiar  political  topic  of  the  day,  avowing  his  readiness 
to  recommend  compromises  with  women ;  but  with  men — never ! 

Presently  the  party  was  ushered  into  the  special  train  for  the 
South.      The    locomotive    IVilliam    Pennington    drew    it,    ornate    with 

9 


flags  and  bunting;  Abraham  Condit  was  the  engineer;  a  son  of  Super- 
intendent Woodruff  was  the  honorary  stoker.  The  car  of  honor  was 
a  new  one  but  recently  finished  in  the  New  Jersey  Railroad  car  shops, 
and  beautifully  furnished  and  upholstered  by  Earle  &  Co.  of  this  city. 
A  notable  feature  was  its  luxurious  sofas.  Before  reaching  Washington 
the  news  of  a  threatened  attempt  upon  Mr.  Lincoln's  life  caused  a 
diversion  in  his  journey  by  a  more  circuitous  route,  and  that  furnished 
no  end  of  ribaldry  in  unfriendly  newspapers.  The  Standard  gloated 
for  years  over  the  Scotch  cap  and  cloak  in  which  he  was  alleged  to 
have  been  disguised  from  Harrisburg  to  Washington. 

When  Lincoln  was  inaugurated  the  Standard  professed  itself  bored 
at  being  compelled  to  perform  a  professional  duty  in  publishing  a  docu- 
ment which  "as  a  literary  production  was  unworthy  many  a  schoolboy, 
while  as  an  interesting  effort  it  has  nothing  to  rescue  it  from  mediocrity." 
Such  was  the  monumental  pronouncement,  rendered  after  elaborate  analy- 
sis and  discussion,  upon  the  great  inaugural  address,  which  in  most  men's 
minds  to-day  ranks  as  the  most  profound  presentation  of  the  momentous 
issues  ever  advanced.  What  a  sight  for  the  ages!  Lincoln  standing 
there  before  the  Capitol,  surrounded  by  enemies,  unafraid,  and  yet 
pleading  with  all  the  fervor  of  his  masterly  logic  that  they  should  know 
what  they  were  about  to  do.  And  after  they  had  gone  out  from  that 
presence,  with  the  pleading  climax  of  his  peroration  sounding  in  their 
ears,  they  chose  to  forget  what  he  said  about  "the  mystic  chords  of 
memory,  stretching  from  every  battlefield  and  patriot  grave  to  every 
living  heart  and  hearthstone  all  over  this  broad  land." 

In  the  lines  written  before  this  I  have  endeavored  to  develop  the 
idea  that  there  were  in  Jersey  City  certain  groups  of  citizenship,  rather 
diminutive,  perhaps,  that  came  into  existence  as  the  logical  reaction 
against  the  wrongs  that  might  be  laid  to  differences  of  political  opinion. 
History  has  shown  us,  however,  how  these  wrongs  struck  at  the  heart 
of  the  Nation,  and  how,  in  the  progress  of  events  the  proponents  of  these 
divergent  views  became  arrayed  on  one  side  or  the  other  until  the  vortex 
of  the  Civil  War  engulfed  them.  The  idea  of  a  war  to  settle  these 
differences  was  then  an  unbelievable  thing;  early  in  1861  the  local  paper 
commented  complacently  upon  the  "secession  cockades"  that  certain 
gentlemen,  names  not  given,  wore  in  their  hats  upon  Jersey  City's 
streets:  nobody  prepared  for  war  as  the  way  to  discourage  their  decorating 
themselves.  But  the  moment  came  when  dealing  academically  with 
slavery  and  secession  was  done  away  with  forever. 

The  President's  proclamation  declaring  the  Southern  states  in 
rebellion  and  calling  for  75,000  militia  from  loyal  states  was  published 


here  April  15,  1861.  Several  other  interesting  news  items  were  pub- 
lished in  the  same  issue  of  the  paper.  A  coasting  schooner  had  come 
up  the  river  and  anchored  off  the  city,  somewhere  near  the  foot  of 
Essex  Street.  A  palmetto  flag  flew  from  her  mast-head.  Some  soot- 
stained  patriots  from  the  Dummer  glassworks  saw  the  objectionable 
emblem  and  rowed  out  to  the  schooner.  1  he  clump,  clump,  of  their 
iron  nailed  shoes  across  the  deck  awakened  the  captain,  and  he  was 
given  the  choice  of  hauling  down  the  ensign  and  breaking  out  Old 
Glory  in  its  place,  or  having  his  boat  sunk.     He  saved  his  ship. 

At  the  close  of  an  enthusiastic  Union  meeting  in  the  Hudson 
House,  the  crowd  swept  up  the  street  and  jeered  and  booed  before 
the  newspaper  office,  23  and  25  Montgomery  Street,  and  then  went 
to  the  homes  of  its  publishers  for  the  same  sort  of  a  serenade,  because 
the  sheet  had  maligned  the  Government  and  the  proprietors  would  not 
put  up  our  flag.  I  know  the  names  of  two — Henry  D.  Holt  and  C. 
H.  Dummer — who  assisted  in  the  festivities  of  the  evening. 

On  April  1  8th,  the  Massachusetts  volunteers,  1 ,000  strong  were 
entrained  at  lower  Montgomery  Street  to  the  rhythm  of  martial  music, 
the  cheer  of  loyal  songs,  the  flutter  of  countless  flags;  they  passed  on 

into  history :  the  next  day,  the  anniver- 
sary of  Lexington,  occured  the  tragedy 
at  Baltimore.  They  were  the  first  of 
many,  many  more  thousands,  to  start  on 
that  Great  Adventure,  the  magnitude  of 
which  none  could  dream  and  the  end  of 
which  none  could  foresee.  And  55 
years  afterward  on  June  21,  1916, 
those  of  our  own  circle  of  friend- 
ships, the  old  Fourth  and  the  Signal 
Corps  marched  no  less  proudly  down 
the  same  street,  were  embarked  at 
almost  the  same  spot,  and  were  swept 
away  into  the  mist  that  cleared  away 
presently  and  revealed  our  part  in  the 
greatest   adventure  in   all  human   history. 

By  a  strange  co-ordination  of  news  incidents,  the  account  of  these 
soldier  sons  of  Pilgrim  fathers  was  printed  immediately  above  a  few 
line  notice  telling  of  the  unanimous  calling  to  the  First  Congregational 
Church  of  John  Milton  Holmes.  Without  reflecting  upon  other  churches 
in  the  town,  it  may  be  said  that  the  incident  was  of  very  great  moment 

12 


Ri-v.  Jiilin    Millcin    Hiiliiies 


Lincoln  Heading  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  to  His  Cabinet 
(The  original  of  tliiss  picture  hung  in  the  Tabernacle  for  many  years) 

to  Jersey  City.  He  preached  a  sermon  the  Sunday  night  after  the 
Baltimore  affair  that  stirred  the  town  to  its  depths,  and  it  was  given 
the  very  unusual  attention  of  being  published  in  full  in  the  Courier 
and  Advertiser  "at  the  request  of  hearers  who  were  electrified  and 
delighted  by  its  noble  sentiments  and  splendid  delivery.  "  It  is  beautiful 
reading  to-day,  and  the  magnificent  work  done  by  this  splendid  soldier 
of  the  Cross  in  Jersey  City  in  the  few  years  of  his  intensive  devotion 
should  be  known  and  acclaimed  by  every  school  child. 

With  great  emphasis,  therefore,  I  beg  to  present  the  name  of 
John  Milton  Holmes  as  one  who  helped  prodigiously  to  make  the 
Lincoln  Association  possible.  We  cannot  read  the  newspapers,  both 
kinds,  if  you  please,  without  being  gripped  by  the  sublimity  of  his 
devotion  to  the  Lincoln  ideal;  and  by  the  time  that  the  Tabernacle, 
"with  a  flag  pole  for  its  steeple  and  the  Union  emblem  for  its  weather 
vane,"  was  dedicated,  two  years  later,  the  people  of  Jersey  City  were 
pretty  well  accustomed  to  the  brand  of  politics  preached  by  its  minister. 
He  believed  in  Lincoln.  "Every  citizen  who  failed  to  uphold  the  honor 
of  the  flag  was  an  abettor  of  treason  and  should  suffer  the  penalty  due 
to  his  crime;"  that  was  an  oft  repeated  declaration  to  the  great  audiences 
he  attracted.  So  we  have  the  two  partisans.  To  one  Lincoln  meant  a 
bloody  war  and  a  wicked  waste  of  human  life,  and  an  interference 
with  the  inherent  rights  of  the  people;  to  the  other  Lincoln  meant  an  ideal 
of  human  freedom.  Union  in  a  great  Nation  that  should  be  one  and 
indivisible.  Both  believed  utterly  in  their  principles.  It  is  hardly 
necessary    to    comment   upon    that   branch   of   the   Lincoln    Association 

13 


that  was  always  in  session  at  the  Tab- 
ernacle, and  attended  by  loyal  people 
from  other  congregations,  including  their 
""^'ankee"  preachers,  for  example.  Rev. 
W.  H.  Parmly  of  the  Baptist  Church, 
the  clergymen  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  and 
others. 

"The  President's  opinion  that  slavery 
is  the  cause  of  the  war"  was  regarded 
by  the  Standard  of  December  3,  1862, 
"as  a  fundamental  error,"  and  he  was 
solemnly  adjured  to  make  "well  directed 
efforts  to  save  our  tottering  nation."  I 
have  gone  through  the  files  of  the  local 
paper  pretty  thoroughly,  for  I  should  really 
like  to  discover  what  sort  of  well-directed 
efforts,  what  constructive  thoughts  it  might 
have  advanced,  in  the  way  of  winning  the 
war,  if  there  was  any  such  purpose  bound 
Kcv.  wheeiock  H.  Parmiv  ^p   jj^   jjg   program   of   saving  the   nation. 

Henry  Ward  Beecher  would  not  have  to  explain  to  any  fairly  well 
informed  audience  what  his  program  was  during  the  Civil  War,  yet  he 
was  arraigned  in  Jersey  City  as  one  who  "professes  to  be  a  Christian  and 
yet  invokes  God  and  Christ  to  carry  on  butchery  for  the  sake  of  humanity. 
Impious  fool!"  Nor  would  Wendell  Phillips  have  difficulty  in  convinc- 
ing any  one  of  his  war-time  beliefs,  yet  he  was  pilloried  here  as  the  "arch- 
agitator  who  according  to  his  own  admission  has  been  laboring  twenty 
years  to  dissolve  the  Union."  Neither  will  it  harm  the  reputation 
of  Dr.  George  B.  Cheever,  to  quote  an  editorial  opinion  about  him  as 
the  "reverend,  fanatical,  hypocritical,  treason-breeding  Cheever 
*  *  *  who  envenomed  our  atmosphere  of  loyalty  by  his  foul  breath, 
this  sainted  preacher  of  discord  and  the  higher  law,  who  prostituted 
the  high  purposes  of  an  ambassador  of  the  truth  of  Christ." 

Probably  only  a  few  of  my  gray-haired  readers  will  recall  the 
stirring  scenes  enacted  in  the  Tabernacle,  that  historic  building  at  the 
corner  of  York  and  Henderson  Streets.  I  want  to  allude  to  one  of 
them  at  this  juncture,  because  it  so  completely  illustrates  the  state 
of  the  public  mind  at  a  most  critical  period  in  the  life  of  Lincoln.  The 
annual  meeting  of  the  First  Congregational  Society  was  on  the  point 
of  adjournment  on  March  26,  1863,  when  Hon.  D.  S.  Gregory  arose 
to  ask  the  approval  of  the  society  to  action  already  taken  by  the  Building 

14 


Committee  in  granting  permission  to  use  the  almost  finished  auditorium 
of  the  Tabernacle  for  the  definite  purpose  of  forming  a  Union  League. 

The  local   papers  indicate   that  the   approval  was  voted,   for  the   The  Union 
following  advertisement  appeared  for  the  next  few  days:  "One  People,    League 
One  Country,  One  Destiny.      The  loyal  people  of  Jersey  City  without    rounuea 
distinction  of  Party  are  invited  to  attend  a  meeting  to  be  held  in  the 
new    Tabernacle,    corner    York   and    Henderson    Streets,    on    Monday 
evening,  March  30,    1863,  at  half  past  seven  o'clock,   for  the  purpose 
of  expressing  their  devotion  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union  of   the 
United  States,  and  their  firm  determination  to  uphold  the  authority  of 
the  Government  and  enforce  the  laws.     Addresses  by  Hon.  James  T. 
Brady,   Hon.   James   Wadsworth,  Wm.   Allen   Butler,   Esqr.,   and  E. 
M.  Dickerson,  Esqr.     Seats  reserved  for  ladies.     A  patriotic  ode  will 
be  sung,  accompanied  by  the  organ.  " 

Well,  the  meeting  was  held,  according  to  schedule.  The  only 
thing  that  stops  me  from  printing  in  full  the  Standard's  account  of 
what  it  called  "A  Republican  League  Meeting"  is  the  fear  of  the 
committee  that  will  have  to  audit  the  printer's  bill.  It  was  rich,  from 
one  end  to  the  other.  Curiosity  to  see  and  hear  James  T.  Brady,  "the 
captured  copperhead;"  a  copious  display  of  rockets  and  other  fireworks; 
the  packing  of  the  meeting  with  members  of  the  M.  E.  Conference 
then  in  session  in  the  city ;  the  presence  of  a  gallery  full  of  ladies  "guarded 
at  each  door  by  one  of  their  number  of  the  'strong  minded  persuasion.*  " 
Whatever  the  reasons  the  great  auditorium  was  jammed,  at  any  rate. 

Alexander  H.  Wallis  called  the  meeting  to  order,  and  nominated 
Hon.  Dudley  S.  Gregory  for  chairman.  Then  Mr.  Gregory  led  the 
way  to  the  platform,  followed  by  Ephraim  Marsh,  Esq.,  H.  M.  Trap- 
hagen,  Peter  Bentley,  Robt.  Gilchrist,  E.  M.  Dickerson,  Esq.,  of  Pater- 
son,  Revs.  R.  L.  Dashiell  (Trinity  M.  E.),  John  Milton  Holmes 
and  Wheelock  H.  Parmly.  Wm.  C.  Traphagen  was  appointed  Secre- 
tary. Rev.  Mr.  Dashiell  opened  the  meeting  with  an  eloquent  prayer. 
Then  Mr.  Holmes  was  called  upon  to  explain  the  object  of  the  meeting 
— which  he  did  by  blandly  reading  a  clipping  from  the  A^ett*  York 
Express,  in  which  the  Unionists,  Abolitionists,  the  Congregationalists, 
etc.,  were  just  shot  to  pieces  with  copperhead  rhetoric. 

Mr.  Holmes  submitted  for  adoption  by  the  meeting,  a  set  of 
resolutions  declaring  for  the  manifestation  of  the  highest  patriotism 
at  this  time.  He  quoted  Whitefield  about  there  being  no  sect  in 
Heaven,  and  so  "we  come  together  to-night  to  consecrate  this  house  to 
the  God  of  our  fathers,  standing  on  one  platform  to  crush  out  rebellion. 

15 


I'eter    Bentlev 


As  to  the  cry  of  peace,  when  the  last  rebel  is  driven  into  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  then  we  can  thank  God  for  peace."  Notwithstanding  the 
Standard  said  no  question  was  put,  and  no  action  was  taken  upon  the 
resolutions,  they  were  adopted.  The  Loyal  League  was  formed,  for  the 
Standard  published  a  number  of  ribald  references  to  the  organization 
later. 

The  meeting  must  have  been  a  most  uproarious  one.  Mr.  Dicker- 
son  was  interrupted  in  his  speech  when  he  quoted  a  letter  from  Charles- 
ton, S.  C,  dated  some  four  months  before  the  war,  predicting  a  northern 
and  a  southern  confederacy.  The  interrupter  wanted  the  name  of  the 
writer  and  in  the  confusion  of  hisses  and  cheers,  a  cry  was  raised,  "put 
him  out!"  And  he  did  get  put  out.  Further  turmoil  was  caused  by 
another  "conscientious  objector"  when  James  T.  Brady,  afterward 
one  of  the  most  famous  criminal  lawyers  in  America,  started  to  speak. 
William  Harney  got  up,  and  in  his  big  voice,  demanded  that  that  seces- 
sionist be  removed  before  Mr.  Brady  began.  But  Mr.  Harney  froze  the 
genial  current  of  the  obnoxious  soul,  and  then  Mr.  Brady  went  through 
with  that  classical  address  of  his,  clear  to  the  climax  when  he  declared 
that  "by  the  strength  and  power  of  the  great  Author  of  the  universe 
the  Union  must  and  shall  be  preserved." 

If. 


Since    the   Civil   War.   we   have    at   least    learned   to    estimate   at    The  Peak 
something  like  their  true  value  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  and  the  surrender    of  the 
of  Vicksburg.      Of  course  this  could  not  be  computed  at  the  time,  but    ^  ar 
on  July  4.    1863,  they  certainly  added  a  little  more  spirit  to  the  civic 
celebration   of   Independence   Day,   which  was   officially   appointed   by 
Common   Council    for  the  Tabernacle.      A   National   salute   at   sunrise 
of  35  guns  by  the  Hudson  County  Artillery,  a  general  house  to  house 
decoration  with  flags,  and  the  ringing  of  church  and  fire-bells,  marked 
the  day  outside;   in  the   Tabernacle,   the  celebration   started  at    12.30 
with  Mayor  Romar  presiding.      Alderman  Gafney,  Rev.   Dr.   Parmly 
and  Rev.  John  Milton  Holmes  participated  in  the  exercises.      Dudley 
S.  Gregory,  Jr.,  led  the  patriotic  singing;  A.  S.  Hatch  read  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  and  Rev.  Sam.  B.  Bell  of  the  Reformed  Dutch 
Church  made  a  spirited  patriotic  address. 

But  the  import  of  the  tremendous  news  from  Gettysburg  and 
Vicksburg  commenced  to  sink  in  in  the  next  few  days  and  so  another 
town  celebration  was  appointed  for  that.  The  Times  of  July  6th,  7th 
and  8th  fairly  reeked  with  the  news  of  victory,  and  it  was  decided 
to  congregate  in  the  Tabernacle  for  public  thanksgiving  for  the  turn 
in  the  fortunes  of  our  armies.  There  was  something  said  in  print  at 
the  time,  about  the  reasons  why  there  had  been  no  opportunity  for  such 
a  celebration  before;  and  that  did  not  set  well  with  the  Standard.  How- 
ever, Peter  Bentley  presided  over  the  meeting  appointed  for  July  8th, 
in  gratitude  for  the  "affluence  of  joyful  tidings."  Rev.  John  Milton 
Holmes,  Rev.  Sam  B.  Bell,  Joseph  Hoxie  were  among  the  speakers; 
the  Standard  says  that  Horace  Greeley  made  "a  few  congratulatory 
remarks;"  while  the  A^eiP  York  World  which  was  not  what  you  might 
call  friendly  to  H.  G.,  said  this  of  his  eloquence:  "The  great 
blow  which  General  Grant  has  struck  against  the  rebellion  at  Vicksburg 
was  celebrated  last  night  by  a  still  mightier  'blow'  in  Jersey  City." 
The  program  of  exercises,  the  Standard  said,  was  forced  down  the 
people's  throats! 

Out  on  the  streets  that  Wednesday  night,  there  was  some  time, 
too.  Down  in  Washington  Square  they  were  firing  a  salute  of  1 00 
guns;  the  bells  of  the  city  were  rung  from  6  to  7  P.  M. ;  Colgate's 
soap  works,  Taylor's  Hotel,  Black's  trunk  factory,  the  ferry  house, 
and  many  other  business  places  were  gorgeously  illuminated ;  Dodworth's 
Celebrated  Cotillion  Band  played  at  the  City  Hall  until  8.30,  when 
it  was  time  to  go  to  the  Tabernacle  and  contribute  to  the  enthusiasm 
of  that  function.  But  to  find  out  about  it  you  must  go  to  the  Times, 
not  the  Standard. 


An 

Historic 

Flag 


Draft 

Riot 

Davs 


Among  the  decorations  in  this  room  to-night  is  a  tattered  flag, 
and  it  is  a  high  privilege  for  us  to  contemplate  it  in  connection  with 
the  narrative  we  have  just  been  discussing.  When  the  story  of  Gettys- 
burg and  Vicksburg  came,  Mr.  Holmes  thought  the  Tabernacle  ought 
to  have  a  flag  as  a  proper  adjunct  to  its  celebration,  so  he  started  out 
with  a  subscription  list  and  got  these  names  upon  it:  Rev.  John  Milton 
Holmes,  $5;  P.  L.  Snyder,  $5;  A.  S.  Hatch,  $5;  Winslow  Ames. 
$2;  William  Spaulding  Taylor,  $1  ;  E.  H.  Adams,  $1  ;  Thomas  H. 
Bouden,  $1;  S.  C.  M.  Allen,  $3;  M.  S.  Douglass,  $1;  Thomas 
Potter.  Jr.,  $5;  D.  S.  Gregory,  Jr.,  $5;  William  A.  Durrie,  $3; 
J.  M.  Goddard.  $1;  Henry  D.  Holt.  $1;  Philo  H.  Prindle,  $1; 
A.  M.  Clerihew,  $1;  cash,  50  cents;  William  Harney,  $1;  Mr. 
Merriman.  50  cents;  S.  A.  Frost.  $1  ;  Noyes  P.  Dennison,  $1  ;  Charles 
H.  Johnson,  $2;  Mrs.  C.  H.  Shaw,  $1;  Mrs.  N.  M.  Shaw.  $1; 
Mr.  Cander,  $1  ;  Homer  Brooks,  $1  ;  Peter  H.  Kline.  $1  ;  W.  W. 
Ingersoll.  $1  ;  WiUiam  H.  Duryea,  $1  ;  John  B.  Moffat,  $1  ;  George 
Kingsland,  $1.50;  Chauncey  Holt.  $1.  Then  there  was  another 
name  on  the  list  (which  I  know)  marked  "payment  refused."  The 
flag  money  amounted  to  $57.50. 

Most  of  these  names  have  disappeared  from  Jersey  City  history — 
but  the  Lincoln  Association  may  well  honor  them  to-night,  as  we  think 
upon  that  patriotic  roster  of  splendid  citizens  who  were  loyal  in  darker 
days  than  these,  and  dwell  upon  what  they  endured  in  the  times  when 
union  and  abolition  were  not  quite  as  "fashionable"  doctrmes  as  they 
became  later  on.  The  flag  was  not  ready  for  the  big  civic  night  of 
July  8th,  so  it  was  not  dedicated  until  the  next  night.  After  preliminary 
devotional  exercises  in  the  church,  the  congregation  repaired  to  the  street ; 
Mr.  Holmes  mounted  an  extemporized  platform  and  gave  a  classical 
address  on  "The  Flag."  Then  as  every  eye  was  fixed  upon  it,  this  very 
flag  above  us  to-night,  was  slowly  hoisted  into  place;  a  cannon  boomed, 
and  the  audience  broke  into  cheers  for  Meade,  Grant  and  President 
Lincoln,  and  three  times  three  for  the  Union.  This  banner  was  one  of 
the  most  cherished  relics  of  the  Tabernacle  and  was  always  in  evidence 
at  the  countless  functions  afterward  held  in  that  historic  edifice.  After 
the  dispersion  of  the  Tabernacle  people  the  flag  has  been  in  the  custody 
of  the  Free  Public  Library,  whose  courtesy  in  loaning  it  for  this 
occasion  is  most  gratefully  acknowledged. 

The  synchronism  of  the  "invasion  of  the  north"  and  what  is  com- 
monly known  as  the  "draft  riots"  of  July  13,  14  and  15.  1863.  has 
been  pretty  well  established,  I  believe.     Terrible  as  they  were,  they  were 

18 


C'^'W 


/^/^ 


SicjL^^^—^ — i^cr' 


The  Subscribers  lo  the  Tabernacle  Flag,   1863 


really  intended  as  part  of  a  much  more  pretentious  demonstration  which 
the  events   of  Gettysburg  interfered  with.      In  Jersey   City,   according 

to  the  Standard  everything  was  quiet;  just  a 
few  boys  prowling  around  burning  stables; 
the  "nigger"  population  was  so  terrified  that 
they  left  their  homes  and  took  refuge  for  days, 
old  men  and  women  and  little  babies,  in 
Curries  woods,  and  the  woods  fringing  the 
heights  of  the  city;  two  companies  of  the 
74th  New  York  stopped  over  in  Jersey 
City  for  several  days:  a  gun-boat  and  a  cutter, 
armed  with  howitzers  and  with  marines 
aboard,  dropped  anchor  off  Secor's  ship- 
yard, where  monitors  were  being  built ;  a  mob 
•'"'""•^  ""I'  surrounded  the  Tabernacle  and  threatened  to 

burn  it  down  if  some  fugitive  blacks  said  to  be  secreted  in  the  top  of 
the  building  were  not  turned  over  to  them  (Chauncey  Holt  placed  his 
axle-handle  souvenir  of  the  defense  in  the  Free  Public  Library  many 
years  afterward)  ;  Pastor  Holmes  was  on  the  roof  with  a  pile  of  bricks 
before  him,  promising  the  mob  some  droppings  from  the  sanctuary  if 
they  did  not  disperse.  But  generally  speaking,  the  town,  according  to 
the  Standard,  "continues  quiet,  without  any  fear  that  the  peace  will 
be  disturbed!" 

A  certain  gentleman  who  was  a  candidate  for  an  important  civic 
position  a  little  less  than  two  years  later  advertised  his  reasons  for 
deserving  the  votes  of  his  fellows,  and  incidentally  illuminated  the  subject 
for  us:  "The  people  will  not  readily  forget  one  who  has  acted  as 
their  friend  in  so  important  a  matter  as  the  draft,  and  who  has  faithfully 
striven,  in  season  and  out,  early  and  late,  to  keep  them  with  their 
families."  He  w'as  elected  on  that  platform  in  1865;  people  have  dis- 
appeared from  social  life  in  1918  for  a  great  deal  less  than  that! 

It  is  difficult  indeed  to  imagine  how  such  a  pandering  to  the  taste 
of  a  clientele,  whether  real  or  supposed,  could  be  tolerated.  With 
the  growing  enormity  of  the  victory  in  the  two  great  campaigns  in 
mind,  and  the  surprising  manifestation  of  power  against  the  lawlessness 
of  the  metropolitan  mob  as  a  new  inspiration,  the  Standard's  psychology 
takes  a  curious  tack.  On  July  25,  1863,  with  a  circus  performance 
imminent,  it  prints  the  following  pleasant  notice:  "The  Two  Clowns. 
— Two  clowns,  Dan  Rice  and  Abe  Lincoln  receive  for  their  services 
the  same  salary,  $25,000  a  year.     While  the  latter  furnishes  nothing 

20 


but  a  few  stale  jokes,  unintelligible  speeches  and  useless  proclamations, 
Dan  gives  the  benefit  of  his  name  to  a  large  establishment,  the  use  of 
his  beautiful  horse.  Excelsior,  and  his  educated  mules,  etc."  Whether 
that  bit  of  editorial  courtesy  ever  helped  Dan,  I  do  not  know,  but  a 
press  ticket  to  a  circus  looks  like  a  high  price  to  pay  for  it. 

When  the  time  came,  a  few  months  later,  to  write  up  the  story 
of  the  exercises  incident  to  the  dedication  of  the  National  Cemetery 
at  Gettysburg,  we  do  not  have  to  imagine  that  there  was  no  expression 
of  any  indication  of  immortality  in  the  address  which  is  now  on  the 
tongue  of  every  schoolboy  in  the  land.  Edward  Everett's  oration, 
of  course,  was  the  thing  "that  was  listened  to  with  marked  attention," 
and  he  said  a  great  deal  which  it  would  hurt  the  Standard  to  print, 
so  abstracts  of  it  only  were  published.  Lincoln  wisely  wrote ;  he  could 
not  be  condensed;  and  so,  what  it  calls  his  "dedicatory  speech"  was 
printed  in  full. 

All  through  the  campaign  of  I  864,  the  Standard  voiced  the  same 
bitter  animosity.  It  grew  frantic  in  July,  I  864,  over  the  terms  addressed 
"To  whom  it  may  concern"  in  that  famous  Niagara  conference.  The 
basis  of  a  total  abolition  of  slavery  was  preposterous,  as  Mr.  Lincoln 
would  discover  when  he  scanned  the  election  returns  on  November  8th. 
It  published  the  names  of  two  New  Jersey  newspapers  whose  editors.  Kind 
it  reported,  had  been  arrested  for  publishing  articles  antagonistic  to  the  Words 
draft — Mr.  Winton  of  the  Bergen  County  Democrat  at  Hackensack,  in  64 
and  O.  C.  Cone  of  the  Somerset  Messenger.  And  then  it  reprinted  the 
article  attributed  to  the  Bergen  Coun/p  Democrat:  "Let  the  press  speak 
out  in  opposition  to  this  merciless  conscription,  which  has  no  other  end 
than  to  secure  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  for  another  term  of  four 
years  or  for  life.  There's  no  pretext  now  that  the  administration  are 
at  all  desirous  of  restoring  the  Union  and  the  Constitution.  Why  then 
should  the  people  be  dragged  from  their  homes  at  the  beck  of  a  tyrant 
and  a  usurper,  to  murder  and  destroy  those  with  whom  they  should 
be  at  peace?"  That  was  the  way  the  bolsheviki  of  55  years  ago  talked 
about  the  President ! 

When  Lincoln  was  re-nominated  the  Standard  condensed  the  story 
of  the  historic  Baltimore  convention  into  a  few  lines  like  this: 
"A.  Lincoln,  Esq.,  father  of  his  country,  vice  Geo.  Washington,  de- 
ceased, has  accepted  the  nomination.  The  acceptance  was  accompanied 
by  the  usual  'I  am  reminded  of  a  story,'  which  is,  of  course,  too  stupid 
to  bear  repetition."  All  through  the  summer  and  fall  of  '64,  its  readers 
were    regaled   by    diatribes   of    inconceivable   depravity;    the    President 

21 


and  his  cabinet  were  referred  to  as  "Abraham  the  fanatic  and  his  'Red 
Repubhcan'  maniacs  smeared  all  over  with  the  blood  of  the  innocent;" 
stories  telling  of  outrages  alleged  to  have  been  perpetrated  by  negro 
soldiers,  with  the  scenario  usually  laid  in  some  stately  old  Southern 
home,  with  the  few  remaining  women  as  the  victims,  were  dished  up. 
They  were  not  very  wholesome  narratives,  but  they  were  recommended 
to  Mr.  Lincoln  as  sources  of  "new  material  for  his  obscene  jokes." 
That  splendidly  self-sacrificing  group  of  men  known  as  the  Christian 
Commission  was  sneered  at  in  this  wise:  "Where  their  conAersation  is 
once  upon  God  and  eternity  it  is  a  thousand  times  on  abolition  and 
Abe  Lincoln."  John  Milton  Holmes  was  one  of  the  "C.  C."  men  meant 
by  the  Standard.  He  had  spent  three  months  with  Sherman's  army,  and 
was  never  well  again,  as  the  result  of  the  privations  he  endured. 

Another  series  of  articles  was  intended  to  show  how  the  President 
had  "attempted  to  make  the  public  treasury  pay  a  personal  bill  of 
$2,500."  As  the  bill  involved  White  House  crockery,  and  as  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  not  charged  with  any  particular  measure  of  success  in 
the  attempt,  we  may  well  wonder  what  the  Standard  would  have  done 
if  he  had  actually  gotten  away  with  it!  Here  is  a  choice  bit  of  verse, 
only  one  stanza  of  three,  printed  on  October  21,  1  864,  under  the  title, 
"Lincoln,  the  widow  maker  and  Hell's  outrider:" 

"We  are  coming,  flatboat  tyrant,  in  mourning  goods  and  tears; 

To  hear  your  stories  and  your  jokes,  we  trust  no  more  for  years! 
We  are  coming,  widow  maker,  from  prairie  home  and  glen, 
A  half  a  million  widows  of  slowly  murdered  men. 

We  are  coming,  sadly  coming,  as  the  world  can  plainly  see. 

Not  to  save  the  Union,  but  the  contraband  to  free!  " 

And  here  is  another  choice  specimen  from  the  Standard's  anthology 
of  campaign  poetry: 

"There  is  an  old  man  of  Sangamon 

Who  has  furnished  us  battle  and  famine; 

His  war  for  the  nigger  grows  bigger  and  bigger — 

Poor,  deluded,  old  man  of  Sangamon!" 

There  was  a  Lincoln  torchlight  parade  in  Paterson  on  October 
27,  '64,  and  the  Jersey  City  "Lincoln  Club"  was  in  the  line.  The 
Standard  learns  that  "the  president  of  the  club  was  arrested  and  put 
under  bonds  for  having  committed  an  aggravated  assault  upon  a  young 
man.  He  is  a  fit  representative  of  the  party  to  which  he  belongs." 
Don't  you  wonder  the  Lincoln  Clubbers  didn't  commit  a  few  murders! 
Perhaps  the  original  of  the  button  I    am  permitted  to  reproduce   from 


the  Free  Public  Library  museum  was  worn  at  that 
Paterson  party.  Dr.  Gordon  K.  Dickinson  could  not 
verify  that,  but  he  does  verify  the  fact  that  it  was  worn 
by  a  very  staunch  Lincoln  man  by  the  name  of  W.  L. 
Dickinson,  all  honor  to  him!  "Vote  for  Lincoln,  if  you 
want  war  taxes,  starvation,  abolition  and  a  dissevered 
Union,"   was   the   final   adjuration    just   the    day   before        a  ih...  ii       '  ...i|.>ign 

,  liulton. 

election. 

A  coarse  joke  was  perpetrated  upon  a  loyal  out-of-town  newspaper 
for  printing  the  following  sonnet  addressed  to  "Abraham  Lincoln." 
It  reads,  apparently,  like  a  very  high  tribute  to  the  President: 

Lincoln!  be  firm  and  fear  not;  bigot  men 

In  vain  assail  thee  with  their  senseless  word : 

Nor  heed  the  slaves  to  party  and  their  lies 

Conveying  censure.     The  historians  pen — 

Oh,  wand  of  magic!  shall  destroy  the  sneers. 

Laughter  and  carping  of  the  would-be  wise. 

Not  in  the  future  shall  their  voice  be  heard 

In  making  up  its  judgment  on  these  years. 

Second  to  few  patriots  in  esteem. 

And  sorer  tried  than  many  thou  hast  been; 

Now  few  the  stars  that  through  the  darkness  gleam. 

And  not  as  yet  are  signs  of  daylight  seen — 

Soon  stars  shall   come,  and  when   these  pass  away. 

Shall  gleam  the  light  that  marks  thy  coming,  glorious  day! 

5.  Oldcheap. 

The  Standard  chortled  over  the  thing:  Why,  the  name  of  the 
author  should  have  been  enough.  What  a  sell !  And  sold  cheap,  too ! 
Anybody  of  ordinary  intelligence  should  have  seen  the  story  in  the 
initials  of  the  first  lines!  Still,  even  the  best  intended  effort  sometimes 
fails,  in  war  as  well  as  in  poetry:  S.  Oldcheap  didn't  intend  to  be,  but 
he  turned  out  a  fair  prophet  after  all. 

Now   that    we   have   suggested   some   depths   of   the   depravity   of 
that  campaign,   let  us  turn   for  a  moment  to  contemplate   some  of  the 
high  spots  of  that  turbulent  period.      Standing  out  with  the   brilliancy 
of  an  illuminated  cross  against  the  darkness  of  night,   is  the  report  of 
a   convention   of   Congregational   ministers   in   the   Tabernacle   on    Sep- 
tember 21,   I  864.     A  newspaper  was  handed  the  moderator  while  the 
session  was  on ;  he  held  up  his  hand  to  get  the  silence  and  attention  of   News  of 
the  assemblage  and  then  he  read  the  glorious  news  of  Sheridan's  victory    Sheridan's 
over  Early.     The  audience  broke  into  tumultuous  applause,  and  gradually    Victory 
a  voice,  then  others  and  others,  caught  up  the  swing  of  "Praise  God 
from   whom   all   blessings    flow!"      Shortly    afterward,   the   conference 

23 


formulated  and  adopted  unanimously  a  5et  of  five  resolutions  calling 
upon  their  people  to  go  to  the  polls  next  November  8th,  and  make  the 
decision  that  will  be  "final  and  fatal  to  the  hopes  of  traitors  in  arms 
and  of  conspirators  in  political  councils."  Mr.  Holmes  preached  two 
red-hot  sermons  shortly  thereafter  on  the  subject  of  the  election.  He 
was  not  exactly  an  exponent  of  the  theory  that  ministers  should  play 
neutrality  in  politics;  "our  actions  now  should  be  such  that  we  might 
relate  to  our  children's  children  that  we  fought  with  Grant  or  Sherman 
in  the  Union  War;  or  that  in  the  great  election  of  1864,  when  the 
Peace  Democracy  were  plotting  with  the  Rebels  and  a  man  named 
McClellan  was  carrying  their  flag,  we  did  what  we  could  to  help 
the  boys  in  front  of  Richmond  and  deposited  in  the  sacred  ark  of  freedom 
a  ballot  for  the  Nation's  life." 

There  was  a  great  "Union  Rally"  held  on  November  1  ,  1 864. 
The  Times  tells  us  that  "the  Tabernacle,  besides  being  decorated  with 
the  fair  forms  and  bright  eyes  of  the  Union  ladies,  was  appropriately 
dressed  with  National  flags  and  beautiful  flowers."  The  speakers 
were  General  Cary  of  Ohio,  Walter  Rutherford,  Esq.,  L.  E.  Chit- 
tenden, and  John  Milton  Holmes.  Master  Hendershott  "of  drumming 
fame"  called  the  meeting  to  attention  with  the  long  roll,  and  John 
Owen  Rouse  made  a  stirring  speech  when  he  nominated  Mr.  Holmes  as 
chairman  of  the  meeting.  The  Union  Glee  Club,  under  the  leadership 
of  Col.  Dudley  S.  Gregory  sang  appropriate  music.  And  the  people 
decided  that  when  crossing  a  stream  it  was  the  better  policy  not  to  swap 

horses. 

One   might   believe   that   m    the   common   cause    of  mmistermg   to 

the  necessities  of  the  families  of  soldiers  at  the  front,  or  to  the  widows 
and  orphans  of  those  who  had  made  the  supreme  sacrifice,  there  might 
be  at  least  some  slight  forgetfulness  of  animosities.  But  such  was  not 
the  case.  The  Standard  was  still  the  mouthpiece  of  those  who  carried 
the  bitterness  of  their  unfriendliness  to  the  policies  of  the  Lincoln  admin- 
istration, to  the  extent  of  embarrassing  the  efforts  made  in  the  winters 
of  '63,  '64  and  '65,  toward  uniting  and  co-ordinating  the  local  relief 
organizations.  There  were  enough  people  to  agree  that  one  general 
organization  was  the  correct  principle,  and  a  course  of  lectures  the  first 
winter  brought  in  the  snug  sum  of  $2,000.  The  popular  lecture  was 
then  the  finest  type  of  diversion,  and  the  Tabernacle,  having  the  largest 
auditorium,  was  thronged  with  the  best  people  every  night  of  these 
functions. 

The  Standard  inveighed  against  the  plan  as  well  as  the  lecturers: 
Grace  Greenwood's  was  a  mere  abolition  harangue  teeming  with  negroes 

24 


from  beginning  to  end;  Dr.  A.  A.  Willetts  evidently  tickled  the  Standard 
with  his  lecture  on  "Woman,"  and  he  said  his  ideal  woman  was  the 
one  mentioned  in  the  last  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  but  the 
Standard  thought  she  couldn't  have  been  a  nigger,  and  it  couldn't 
understand  how,  in  these  days  of  woolly  heads  and  niggerites,  a  man 
could  get  through  an  hour's  oration  without  using  up  the  nigger  element 
pretty  effectually ;  Edmund  Kirke  came  from  Boston,  "which  is  at 
once  the  home  of  philanthropy,  the  hub  of  the  universe  and  the  hotbed 
of  abolition,"  and  his  address  had  certainly  made  him  amenable  to 
the  indignation  of  our  people!  As  a  matter  of  course,  the  money  raised 
by  such  methods  was  tainted. 

James  Gopsill  answered  the  rather  plain 
and  offensive  suggestions  of  the  Standard 
about  the  expense  account,  by  printing  a 
detailed  financial  statement,  and  in  the 
winter  of  '64  and  '65,  the  1st,  2nd,  3rd 
and  6th  Ward  funds  were  raised  by  direct 
popular  subscription,  while  the  4th  and 
5  th  Ward  funds  were  raised  through 
another  course  of  popular  lectures  in  the 
Tabernacle.  Grace  Greenwood,  Dr.  E. 
H.  Chapin,  Edwin  W.  Whipple,  Bayard 
Taylor,  Dr.  J.  G.  Holland  and  George 
W.  Curtis  were  among  the  lecturers,  and 
I  fancy  they  must  have  said  some  things 
that  were  not  pleasant  reading  for  the 
copperheads,  for  the  Standard  cut  them 
dead.  One  lecture  in  the  course,  however, 
was  by  Charles  D.  Deshler,  once  an 
editor  on  the  Standard,  and  later  "Military 
Agent  from  New  Jersey."  He  was  given 
a  fulsome  column  of  praise  in  his  old 
paper.  Leonard  J.  Gordon  was  the  organ- 
ist at  many  of  these  lectures.  As  a  new- 
comer in  Jersey  City  I  did  not  know,  until  too  late,  how  deep  was  his 
reverence  for  Lincoln,  nor  why  his  pocket  copy  of  Lincoln  letters  and 
speeches  was  the  book  from  which  we  must  read  aloud  as  we  rested 
awhile  on  our  tramps  together  through  Currie's  Woods. 

Election  day,  1864,  came  on  November  8th.  The  Standard 
that  day  editorially  proclaimed  what  evidently  it  would  have  us  believe 
was  the  reverse  of  what  was  happening  then,  in  this  rather  remarkable 


I.ronard   J.  Gorflnn    in    1862. 


An  1864 
Elysium 


utterance:  "If  General  McClellan  is  elected,  speech  will  be  free, 
opinion  will  be  free,  the  press  will  be  free.  Men  will  no  longer  be 
subjected  to  arbitrary  arrest  and  imprisonment  for  political  opinions; 
and  the  doors  of  the  political  jails,  bastiles  and  dungeons  will  be  thrown 
wide  open.  His  election  will  bring  an  end  to  drafts,  conscriptions, 
mutual  slaughters,  debts  and  taxation."  But  that  happy  moment  has  not 
arrived,  even  yet.  Instead,  came  the  "dark  brown  taste  of  the  morning 
after."  In  an  obscure  column — remote  from  the  spread  head  and  the 
glowing   news   of  victorious   Democracy    (in   Hudson   County) — is    the 

matter-of-fact  announcement  that  "Abra- 
ham Lincoln  is  without  doubt  elected 
President  of  the  United  States."  The 
Standard  and  its  clientele  in  Jersey  City 
undoubtedly  looked  for  the  defeat  of  Lin- 
coln ;  and  have  you  ever  stopped  to  think 
what  might  have  happened  to  the  makings 
of  the  Lincoln  Association  in  that  case? 

And  you  would  have  a  hard  time  to 
discover  from  the  Standard  of  the  inaugu- 
ration period  that  Abraham  Lincoln  even 
figured  in  the  exercises  of  Saturday,  March 
4,  1865.  An  editorial  column  and  a 
half  was  filled  'with  a  screed  headed 
"Andy  Johnson;"  it  consisted  of  some 
home-made  stew,  amplified  with  a  most 
villainous  reprint  from  the  Herald.  The 
Herald  reported  Johnson's  speech  as  nine- 
teen minutes  in  length,  and  printed  it  in 
short,  disjointed  sentences,  interspersed 
with  dashes;  and  in  case  that  failed  to 
convey  the  impression  intended,  the  news- 
paper remarked,  "it  is  charitable  to  say 
that  his  condition  was  such  that  he  was 
unfit  to  make  a  speech.  He  evidently  did  not  shun  Bourbon  County 
on  his  way  here."  The  Standard  piously  commented:  "We  devoutly 
pray  that  Heaven  in  its  mercy  will  preserve  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
during  the  next  four  years,  if  only  to  relieve  the  republic  from  the  remote 
possibility  of  Andy  Johnson's  becoming  the  chief  officer  of  the  nation. 
Heaven  preserve  us  from  this  further,  deeper,  unspeakable  ingnominy." 
In  the  same  spirit  of  religious  observance,  the  paper  printed  in 
its  issue  of  the  next  Friday  the  following 


Gilbert   Collins  alumt    181)5. 


26 


Inauguration  Hymn. 


All  hail    the  power  of  Abratn's   name  My   proclamation  has  gone   forth, 

Let    white    folks    prostrate    fall;  The   wheel   again   must    turn. 

Bring   forth  the  colored  gentleman,  To    take    the   boobies    of    the    north 

And  make  him  lord  of  all.  "To  whom   it  may   concern."' 

Let  white  folks  no  more  lift  their  heads,  Let    Constitution    and    the    rights 

Nor  dare  his  acts  reprove — •  Of    slates    no    more    be    known. 

Of   mighty   Lincoln — Abram    first, —  For  we  have   made   the  Sambo    race 

Who   freed   the  ones  we  love.  Superior   to   our  own. 

Stand  by  and  heed  the  chieftain's  cry —    For    this    we've    fought,    for    this    we've 
"More    men    we    want    than    that:"  prayed. 

Said    he    to   pompous   General    Fry,  The    nation's    life    have    given. 

"Where  will  you  come  out  at?"  Lord,  send  the  while  folks  all  to  hell, 

The  niggers  all   to  Heaven. 

And,  Lord,  when  thou  art  done  with  earth, 
Give   to  our  chosen  band 
Of  woolly  heads — sweet  scented  race — 
A  place  at  Thy  right   hand. 


We  have  to  turn  to  the  Times  for  any  real  news  account  of  the 
inauguration  at  all,  as  well  as  for  the  publication  of  another  immortal 
Lincolnian  classic^ — his  last  inaugural  address — closing  with  this  great 
sentence:  "With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with 
firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive  to 
finish  the  work  we  are  in,  to  bind  up  the  nation's  wound,  to  care  for 
him  who  shall  have  borne  the  battle  and  for  his  widow  and  orphans, 
to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and  lasting  peace  among 
ourselves  and  with  all  nations." 

The  news  of  the  fall  of  Richmond  caused  great  jubilation  in  the 
town,  and  the   Times  must  have  felt  good  when  its  editor  wrote,   "we 
are  sorry   for  the  Standard  and  its   friends  ' — and  there  were   quite  a 
few  of  'em  in  Jersey  City.     Secretary  Stanton's  glad  news  was  published 
on   Monday,  April    10,    1865,  and  immediately  the  peace   celebration   The 
broke  loose.     Uncle  Billy,  proprietor  of  the  People's  Union  newsstand.    Surrender 
climbed  to  the  loft  of  the  First  Presbyterian   Church   and  clanged   its   in  1865 
bell.      Col.    Gregory   got  the    1865    version   of   a   jazz   band   together 
and   soon   a    long    procession   rambled    through   the    streets   singing   the 
songs  of  the  day.      They  stopped   at  John   Milton  Holmes'  residence, 
and  he  made  them  one  of  his  famous  speeches;  then  J.   Brinton  Smith 
spoke   to   them,   and   finally.    Major    Pangborn.      In   the   evening   "the 
illuminations   showed   one   glorious   outburst   of   enthusiasm."      All    the 
fire  apparatus  was  paraded,  and  I  rather  fancy  Empire  Hook  and  Ladder, 
"including  Uncle  Dan,"  must  have  picked  up  the  editors  of  both  papers. 


PROCLAWATION! 

drlorious  hm\ 


And  his  whole  Army  Captured ! 


THE  QUESTION  OF 


"  IIF 


Ml  Hill" " 


ii 


SETTLED    FOREVER. 

The  Glorious  OLD  UNION  already  restored 
and  Peace  and  Prosperity  witliin  our  grasp. 

G-OD   BE   PRAISED! 

Our  Citizens  are  requested  to 

HiiilliliT 

PRIVATE  AND  PUBLIC  buildings 

TO-]^IGHT, 

in  honor  of  the  Glorious  News  received 
this  morning. 

ORESTES  CLEVELAND, 
Monday,  April  10,  '5C.  Mayor. 

From  the  Original  document   preserved   in  the  Free  l'iil>li(    I,il)rarv 


for  both  dwell  lovingly  upon  certain  entertainment  thereunto  apper- 
taining. The  Times  must  have  been  particularly  tickled  for  it  declared 
that  "from  the  unanimity  with  which  all  entered  into  the  spirit  of  the 
occasion,  it  would  seem  that  there  were  no  copperheads  now  resident 
in  Jersey  City." 

On  another  page  is  a  reproduction  of  a  "flyer"  which  was  dis- 
tributed from  house  to  house  in  that  hour  of  jubilation.  The  original 
is  probably  the  only  copy  in  existence,  and  it  was  presented  by  Miss 
M.  Louise  Edge  to  the  Free  Public  Library  from  whose  collection  we 
have  been  privileged  to  reproduce  it.  A  curious  thing  about  the  circular 
is  the  date — the  original  shows  the  year  as  '56  instead  of  '65.  Perhaps 
the  printer  might  be  excused  for  a  little  thing  like  that  under  the 
circumstances.  Another  feature  of  the  composition,  too,  that  will  attract 
attention  is  that  reference  to  the  question  of  self-government  being 
settled  forever.  On  that  same  day  the  editor  of  the  Standard  was 
polishing  up  the  following  literary  gem:  "The  President  is  in  a  great 
measure  subject  to  the  wishes  of  the  radical  faction,  who  will  consent 
to  nothing  but  rapine,  violence  and  devastation,  the  continuation  of 
bloodshed  and  murder,  the  utter  subjugation  of  the  South  and  the  final 
reduction  of  the  seceded  States  to  the  condition  of  conquered  territories." 
Anything  to  help  the  cause  along! 

The  shouting  and  the  tumult  over  the  surrender  had  barely  died  The 
away  before  the  news  of  the  assassination  of  the  President  was  spread  Catas- 
before  the  world.  Certainly,  in  the  face  of  such  a  catastrophe  we  might  trophe 
look  for  some  mitigation  of  the  flood  of  contumely.  And  in  a  measure 
this  was  noticeable — for  a  few  days.  A  psychological  change  did 
appear  in  the  copperhead  papers,  and  the  Standard  re-acted  like  the 
rest.  Its  column  rules  were  "upset"  on  the  inside  pages  so  as  to  stripe 
those  two  pages  and  divide  the  columns  with  black  lines  about  one- 
eighth  of  an  inch  broad.  That  is,  all  those  two  pages  were  in  mourning, 
except  a  space  about  I  0  inches  deep  at  the  top  of  the  first  two  columns 
on  page  3 ;  they  displayed  a  circus  advertisement,  with  cuts  of  prancing 
horses  and  fuzzily  dressed  lady  performers,  and  it  made  the  mourning 
look  like  a  joke.  Mayor  Cleveland  got  himself  much  disliked  by  the 
circus  people  for  refusing  a  license  to  the  show ;  he  told  them  that  the 
people  of  Jersey  City  were  going  to  frame  their  conduct  with  some 
solemnity  at  such  a  time,  and  they  really  didn't  need  a  circus  to  help  out. 

Then  the  Standard  printed  "personals,"  in  which  the  subscribers 
declared  they  had  never  said  they  were  glad  the  President  was  shot, 
as  had   been  charged   by  other  wicked  people,  who  were   particularly 

29 


* 
¥ 


called  upon  to  desist  from  spreading  such  a  slander.  On  April  25th, 
it  reprinted  a  scathing  article  from  the  Times  of  April  22nd,  entitled 
"Who  were  the  Accessories?"  Major  Pangborn  had  written  the  original 
editorial,  and  had  named  by  name  who  some  of  them  were,  and 
by  very  broad  suggestion,  who  some  others  were.  With  a  peculiarly 
holy  hurt,  the  Standard  reprinted  the  Major's  article  under  a  new  head, 
"Alas,  for  the  Rarity  of  Christian  Charity!"  To  him  it  ascribed  this 
sinful  lack  of  this  greatest  virtue.     Here  are  a  few  specimens  of  its  diction: 

"For  months  past,  as  all  men  know,  there  have  been  in  the  loyal 
north  fcores  of  crafty  men,  reckless  demagogues,  whose  almost  sole 
employment  has  been  the  personal,  base,  unscrupulous  abuse  and  de- 
nunciation of  President  Lincoln.  *  *  *  They  have  paused  at  no 
lie  however  monstrous,  have  stuck  at  no  lie  however  base,  have  scrupled 
at  using  no  means  however  vile,  to  malign,  traduce,  and  make  him  hated. 
Here  in  Jersey  City  as  elsewhere  these  men  have  denounced  Abraham  Lin- 
coln as  a  usurper,  a  tyrant,  an  oath-breaker,  a  false,  bad  man 
have  applied  to  him  the  vilest  epithets  which  they  could  coin. 
Read  the  speech  of  Hon.  (?)  A.  Jackson  Rogers,  M.  C.  of  this  State, 
the  harangues  of  Chauncey  Burr,  James  W.  Wall,  and  their  associates, 
or  the  daily  diatribes  and  vile  slanders  of  the  Trenton  American,  the 
Nexvarli  Journal  and  the  American  Standard  *  *  ^'  ^^d  let  the 
impartial  judgment  of  history  decide  if  our  arraignment  of  these  criminals 
is  just." 

Other  newspaper  references  told  of  "the  wife  of  a  certain  gentle- 
man, an  ex-dancing  master  resident  here,  who,  when  she  heard  of  the 
shocking  news  gave  vent  to  her  gratification  by  indulging  in  a  dance." 
Another  man,  a  traveler  on  a  suburban  train,  made  some  offensive  remarks 
about  the  dead  President,  and  his  companion  in  the  same  seat  arose, 
remarking  at  the  same  time  that  he  did  not  wish  to  be  within  hearing 
of  such  language.  The  other  passengers,  a  little  less  polished,  started 
for  the  offender  to  throw  him  out  of  the  window,  but  at  the  critical 
moment  the  car  jumped  the  track! 

Almost  as  soon  as  the  assassination  of  the  President  became  known 
in  Jersey  City,  Mayor  Cleveland  called  a  meeting  of  the  citizens,  and 
they  assembled  in  the  Council  Chamber  of  the  City  Hall  that  Saturday 
evening,  April  15th.  A  committee  of  citizens  and  members  of  Common 
Council  from  each  ward  was  appointed,  consisting  of  A.  O.  Zabriskie, 
F.  B.  Betts,  B.  G.  Clark  and  Alderman  Wm.  Clarke  from  the  1st 
ward;  Job  Male,  John  H.  Lyon,  Alexander  Wilson  and  Alderman 
John  McBride,  from  the  2nd  ward;  Cornelius  Van  Vorst,  Menzies  R. 


The 
Civic 
Obser- 
vance 


31 


Case,  Joseph  McCoy  and  Alder- 
man R.  K.  Terry  from  the  3rd 
ward;  John  Van  Vorst,  John  H. 
Smyth,  Daniel  L.  Reeve  and  Alder- 
man J.  W.  Pangborn  from  the  4th 
ward;  Charles  H.  O'Neill,  Herbert 
R.  Clark,  James  Gopsill  and  Alder- 
man A.  A.  Gaddis  from  the  5th 
ward;  A.  S.  Jewell,  W.  Moore, 
Isaac  Houston  and  Alderman  Pat- 
rick Duff  represented  the  6th  ward. 
Major  Z.  K.  Pangborn.  M.  R. 
Case,  A.  S.  Jewell,  Hon.  D.  S. 
Gregory  and  Hon.  J.  R.  Worten- 
dyke  were  the  committee  appointed 
for  draftmg  appropriate  resolutions. 
In  the  last  of  the  six  paragraphs  of 
its  patriotic  expression,  it  was  de- 
cided to  hold  the  civic  meeting  in 
the  Tabernacle  the  next  afternoon. 
To  this,  practically  every  church  in 
the  city  sent  representatives.  Rev. 
Dr.  Imbrie  presided ;  Rev.  Dr. 
Parmly  offered  prayer;  and  many 
others  of  the  local  clergy  spoke  to  the  vast  audience.  Rev.  Dr.  Harkness 
was  particularly  emphatic  in  demanding  the  stern  execution  of  the  law 
and  condign  punishment  of  the  traitors.  When  he  solemnly  ejaculated, 
"God  bless  Andrew  Johnson,  President  of  the  United  States,  "  there 
was  an  "Amen"  from  every  part  of  the  house — and, incidentally,  the 
invocation  was  a  finer  thing  than  the  disgusting  comment  of  the  Standard 
about  "Andy"  Johnson's  inauguration  and  his  daily  conduct  ever  since. 

Mr.  Holmes  conducted  a  memorial  service  in  the  evening,  preaching 
from  the  text,  "  Moses  my  servant  is  dead;  now  therefore  arise,  go  over 
this  Jordan,"  and  from  the  people  who  heard  that  address,  and  from  an 
intimate  study  of  the  life  and  services  of  that  great  preacher  and  his 
devotion  to  the  loftiest  public  ideals,  I  can  well  believe  that  his  discourse 
was  of  the  finest  and  deepest  inspiration.  The  Times  published  a  very 
complete  account  of  this  great  meeting  in  the  Tabernacle.  The  Standard, 
pleading  other  demands  upon  its  space — without  mentioning  the  circus 
advertisement — disposes  of  it  in  an  inch  and  a  half,  twelve  lines,  as  a 
matter-of-fact. 

.32 


Isaac      IKiiiston. 


The  body  of  the  martyred  President,  on  the  way  to  its  last  resting 
place,  arrived  in  Jersey  City  at  1  0  o'clock  on  Monday  morning,  April 
24,  1865.  The  funeral  train  was  made  up  of  nine  cars,  and  when 
it  rolled  into  the  station  a  great  concourse  of  citizens  were  assembled. 
Municipal  delegations  from  Jersey  City,  Hudson  City,  Hoboken,  Bergen. 
Bayonne  and  Greenville  were  present.  One  witness  of  the  scene  tells 
us  of  the  elaborate  decorations  of  the  station,  in  diagonal  patterns  of 
black  and  white,  and  the  inscriptions  "Be  still,  and  know  that  I  am 
God."  and  "A  Nation's  Heart  was  Struck,  April  15.  1865"  at  the 
east  and  west  ends  of  the  building,  respectively.  The  ferryhouse  bore 
the  motto  "George  Washington,  the  Father;  Abraham  Lincoln,  the 
Saviour,  of  his  Country.  "  Minute  guns  were  fired  by  the  Hudson 
County  Artillery  and  from  the  Cunarders  docked  nearby;  the  church 
bells  were  tolled. 

The  guard  of  honor  and  other  officials  first  alighted  from  the 
train  and  were  greeted  by  delegations  from  here.  A  number  of  German 
singing  societies  were  arranged  along  the  platforms,  and  while  the  coffin 
was  being  removed  from  the  funeral  car,  they  sang  "Integer  Vitae." 
Then  ten  stalwart  veterans  raised  the  casket  to  their  shoulders  and  bore 
it  down  along  the  north  platform,  toward  the  eastern  end  of  the  building, 
then  up  along  the  south  platform  and  out  at  the  western  entrance  of 
the  depot  to  the  hearse  which  awaited  on  Hudson  Street. 

The  hearse  was  drawn  by  six  iron-gray  horses,  each  horse  led 
by  a  groom  in  mourning  and  flanked  by  the  guard  of  honor;  the  pro- 
cession moved  through  the  crowded  streets  to  the  slip,  where  the  new 
boat,  the  Jersey  Cit^  was  waiting.  David  T.  Valentine's  "Lincoln 
Obsequies  in  the  City  of  New  York"  has  preserved  tw'o  very  interesting 
pictures  which  I  have  borrowed  for  this  story  of  mine.  One  of  them 
shows  the  Jersey  City  dressed  in  her  folds  of  crepe,  her  flags  at  half 
mast,  with  the  draped  funeral  car  on  the  deck.  The  other  shows  the 
arrival  of  the  party  at  the  "Jersey  City  Ferry"  at  Desbrosses  Street, 
New  York.  Mr.  Heck  drew  my  attention  to  the  fact  that  one  Jersey 
City  man  at  least  was  honored  in  Mr.  Valentine's  book — Brigadier- 
General  John  G.  Ramsey,  whose  name  was  in  the  list  of  the  guard 
of  honor,  which  had  accompanied  the  remains  from  Washington.  Hon. 
Chauncey  M.  Depew — then  Secretary  of  State  of  New  York — was  in 
Jersey  City  that  morning,  representing  Governor  Fenton  who  was  un- 
avoidably absent,  to  receive  the  body  in  the  name  of  the  Empire  State, 
and  to  escort  it  across  the  Hudson  to  the  city.  Mr.  Depew  is  one  of 
the  few  survivors  of  the  long  official  reception  list. 

.S3 


s 

u 

3 


On  previous  pages  I  have  referred  to  an  incident  of  deep  historic      Old 
significance,   the   meeting   that   was    really   the    founding   of   the   Union      Bergen 
League  in  New  Jersey,  in  the  Tabernacle  on  March  30,    1863.      Of      Lincoln- 
that  organization  and  its  reaction  in  Jersey  City  proper,  there  is  practically      ians 
nothing  on  record  in   the  papers  of  the  time,   beyond  certain   frivolous 
comments  in  the   Standard.      But  I   have  been   fortunate   in  being  the 
beneficiary   of   the   good-will    of  Theodore    F.    Merseles,   who   thought 
when  he  was  clearing  out  his  attic  treasures  before  moving  from  town, 
that  I  would  be  interested  in  a  little  black  book  he  had  found.     Well, 
I   was.      The  book  turned  out  to  be   the  minutes  of   Bergen  Council, 
No  125,  Union  League  of  America,  covering  a  period  from  November 
9,    1864  to  March  5,    1867.     The  serial  number  of  the  organization 
is    interesting    as    showing    how   popular    Unionism    had    become    since 
March  30,    1  863,  and  I  have  often  wondered  how  many  people  there 
were  left  in  these  times  who  could  look  "back  of  beyond"  and  visualize  the 
circumstances    in    Bergen    that   gave    rise    to    the   meetings    that    are   so 
curiously  and  quaintly  preserved  because  a  friend  remembered  his  friend's 
infirmity   for  antiquities  of   this  sort.      As  a  local  historical  document, 
it  is  of  the  highest  value  and  unsurpassed  interest. 

It  will  hardly  be  necessary  to  explain  what  party  these  Bergen 
Union  Leaguers  belonged  to.  The  records  of  the  very  first  meeting 
set  down  in  the  book  impart  the  flavor:  "Resolved,  that  during  this 
Winter,  this  Council  will  furnish  to  the  citizens  of  Bergen  and  vicinity, 
a  course  of  first— class  political  lectures  on  their  duty  as  American  citizens 
to  the  end  that  at  the  next  election  this  glorious  little  town  (the  brightest 
spot  in  this  desert  of  New  Jersey),  instead  of  giving  but  200  majority 
for  the  Union  candidates  shall  at  the  Spring  election,  give  more  than 
twice  that  against  such  men"  as  the  three  they  unblushingly  mention 
by  name,  but  whose  names  are  not  essential  to  complete  the  sentiment. 
So  there  you  have  a  pretty  picture  of  Bergen,  and  what  some  of  its 
citizens  thought  of  some  other  of  its  citizens — who,  after  all,  might 
have  been  quite  as  reputable,  too — as  sketched  only  three  of  four  blocks 
from  the  Carteret  Club,  55  years  ago. 

One  of  the  customs  of  the  secretary  was  to  record  the  offering 
in  the  hat  at  each  meeting;  at  this  particular  meeting  the  sum  was  $5.65, 
"two  bad  fifty-cent  stamps  included."  Perhaps  some  wicked  copper- 
head sneaked  in  under  the  tent!  A  gentleman  named  Chancellor  W. 
Chace  was  secretary  for  a  long  while,  and  he  has  invested  his  pages 
with  the  spark  of  a  thing  called  life.  He  was  a  most  careless  speller — 
like  George  Washington — and  in  one  instance  he  seems  to  excuse  him- 


35 


self  by  signing  as  "secty  with  a  sore  thumb."  But  I  am  grateful  to 
him  and  to  the  other  secretaries  because  they  have  enabled  me  in  1919 
to  tie  up  to  the  Lincoln  Association  so  many  who  "were  reported  worthy 
to  become  members  of  this  council."  Hundreds  of  names  are  recorded,  of 
men  who  have  undergone  the  scrutiny  of  this  patriotic  group  of  Unionists, 
who  were  doing  their  bit  in  the  tremendous  job  of  crystallizing  the  Lincoln- 
ian  idea.  The  book  abounds  with  references  that  reveal  the  strong  Union 
spirit  of  this  group  of  men  of  Bergen,  and  at  this  point  we  can  display  the 
record  of  one  historical  meeting,  on  April  18,  1865,  when  E.  C. 
Bramhall,  Major  Henry  Gaines  and  James  Freeman  were  appointed 
a  committee  to  draft  resolutions  on  the  death  of  Lincoln.  These 
resolutions  embody  some  pretty  plain  talk  about  those  responsible  for 
the    assassination,    and    about    the    political    background    of    the    day: 

"Whereas,  by  a  sudden  and  awful  visitation  of  Divine  Providence, 
Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  these  United  States,  has  been  stricken 
down  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin  with  an  atrocity  of  conception  and 
a  fiendishness  of  purpose  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  nations;  therefore, 

"Resolved,  that  in  this  great  national  calamity  we  members  of  the 
Union  League  of  America  do  recognize  the  hand  of  God  to  whose  will  and 
before  whose  name  we  would  ever  submissively  and  reverently  bow. 

"Resolved,  that  in  the  carefully  planned  murder  of  our  beloved 
Chief,  and  in  the  attempted  murder  of  his  Secretary  of  State,  we  but 
witness  deeper  and  more  damning  evidence  of  the  fiendish  spirit  which 
has  inaugurated,  animated  and  controlled  the  attempt  to  destroy  the 
life  of  the  Nation. 

"Resolved,  that  by  this  afflicting  dispensation  we  are  solemnly 
warned  to  no  longer  trifle  with  our  self-respect,  disgrace  our  manhood, 
and  imperil  our  liberties  by  any  sympathy  or  leniency  towards  the 
leaders  of  this  accursed  dead  rebellion. 

"Resolved,  that  in  the  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln  we  are  called 
to  mourn  the  loss  of  our  chosen  leader,  an  honest  man,  a  pure  patriot 
and  a  martyr  to  the  cause  of  civil  liberty,  human  freedom  and  human 
progress. 

"Resolved,  that  we  will  give  to  Andrew  Johnson,  now  President 
of  the  United  States,  our  cordial  and  unwavering  support  in  his  efforts 
to  prosecute  the  great  work  which  has  fallen  upon  him,  to  a  successful 
issue. 

"Resolved,  that  as  an  emblem  of  our  sorrow  we  will  wear  the 
distmctive  badge  of  mourning  for  thirty  days." 

As  Bergen  Council.  Union  League  of  America,  grew  and  pros- 
pered it  took  up  its  quarters  in  Library  Hall.     They  indulged  in  their 

36 


pleasant  diversion  of  inculcating  the  duties  of  American  citizenship  there 
one  night — Tuesday.  September  30,  1867 — or  perhaps  with  the  purpose 
of  doing  some  social  welfare  work.  They  called  in  Rev.  F.  Lummis, 
a  Greenville  Methodist  minister,  to  speak  for  them,  and  the  Standard 
goes  nutty  over  his  oratory,  "if  such  disgusting  and  disconnected  remarks 
as  he  uttered  and  his  fanatic  manner  of  delivery  can  be  called  oratory. 
His  ravings  were  confined  to  abuse  of  President  Johnson,  the  elevation 
of  the  negro,  the  depreciation  of  the  whole  white  race,  and  an  outrageous 
and  shameful  attack  upon  our  German  citizens."  I  guess  it  must  have 
been  interesting!  The  Standard  continues:  "Had  any  man  given 
utterance  to  such  abuse  of  Abraham  Lincoln  as  this  fanatic  did  of  Presi- 
dent Johnson,  he  would  have  been  instantly  lynched  on  the  spot  where  he 
stood,  and  Rev.  F.  Lummis  would  doubtless  have  either  sided  in  or 
encouraged  the  act — but  his  wild  harangue  was  apparently  received 
with  the  greatest  favor!"     Isn't  that  quaintly  humorous! 

By  another  strange  bit  of  the  good  fortune  that  comes  to  an 
antiquarian  once  every  long  while.  I  was  given  a  program  of  the  exercises 
of  a  "Meeting  in  Bergen.  April  19.  1865,  in  Commemoration  of  the  The  Town 
Death  and  Burial  of  Abraham  Lincoln."  The  copy  is  probably  the  Mourns 
only  one  in  existence,  and  it  has  its  value  as  a  souvenir  of  an  occasion 
of  most  solemn  import  to  the  world  and  at  the  same  time  of  identifying 
those  who  were  proud  to  honor  "the  late  President  of  the  United  States." 
It  came  to  me  from  R.  W.  Woodward,  whose  father  was  A.  A. 
Woodward,  one  of  the  councilmanic  committee  in  charge  of  the  affair. 
The  senior  Mr.  Woodward  was  elected  to  membership  in  Bergen  Council, 
No.   125,  November  29.  1864. 

These  commemorative  gatherings  were  held  all  over  the  country 
on  April  19,  1865.  between  the  hours  of  1  1  and  3.  It  is  well  worth 
remembering  that  the  date  is  commemorative  of  the  Battle  of  Lexington, 
when  "embattled  farmers"  projected  the  astounding  idea  of  opposing 
trained  soldiery  in  defense  of  their  liberties:  the  war  we  have  just  ended 
was  won  because  idealists  like  them  still  lived  in  America. 

Most  of  the  names  on  that  program  are  on  the  roster  of  Bergen 
Council.  Perhaps  some  of  my  readers  may  need  to  be  informed  that 
in  those  days  the  town  of  Bergen  was  a  separate  municipality  with 
a  Board  of  Councilmen  and  a  President,  then  John  Hilton;  and  a 
Town  Clerk,  then  Charles  Keenan.  President  Lincoln  was  assassinated 
on  Good  Friday  night,  April  1  4,  I  865  ;  the  citizens  of  Bergen  assembled 
in  town  meeting  on  Monday  night,  April  1  7th,  to  arrange  for  the  services 
for  the  following  Wednesday.     It  must  have  been  an  embarrassing  thing 


MEETING  IN  BERGEN, 

IN  COMMEMORATIOiN  OF  THE  DEATH  AND  BUKIAL  OF 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN, 

Dr.  J.  M.  CORNELISON. 

VICE-  PRE.'<WF.Nri^, 

JOHN  HJLTON.  E.   R    WaKEMAN 

HENRY  FITCH.  V\?V    A    ^T    JOHN. 

J.  0.   I'AHKKR.  M.  S    ALLISON 

MA  RSIIA  I^ii    V  K  P:EL  A  N  D 

ORDER  OF  EXERCISES- Commencing  at  2^  P.  M. 

Opening  Hymn 

Prayer Rev.  Dr.  Taylor 

Address Rev.  E.  W.  French 

Ode By  School  Cliildren 

Address Kov.  S.  Y.  Monroe 

Address A.  A.  Ilardcnbnrg,  Esq 

Doxology Old  Hundred 

Closing  Prayer Key  Mr.  I )urypu 

Benediction 1^'v.  Mr.  Monroe 

N.  B. — The  meeting  will  be  held  on  the  j^rounds  «»f 
A.  Bonneil,  on  Park  Place,  if  it  ruinS,  th«*  mectiog 
Avill  bo  in  tlic  Presbyterian  Chufcli. 

The  Fire  Department,  the  Council,  and  Board  of 
Education,  will.convcne  at  the  T<'-\vn  Hall,  at  7  o'clock. 

<.0UKC1I.    COMVn  I  tK 

JOHN  HILTON,  \\    L.  SMITH.  o  -VAN   HoKV. 

HKNKY  FITCH,  H.^KIilSON  I  RU  K.  W  ALTEJl  STORM. 

A.  L.  MACDUFF,  OAKRET  VUEELAND     Z-  B    WaKEMAN 

TIIIRI)    ^VARI> 

WM.  KF.ENY.  J.  B   CLEVELANl),  A   A.  WoODWaRI? 

By  order  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements, 

JOHN  HILTON,  Chairman. 


to  communicate,  but  town  clerk  Keenan 
had  to  inform  the  Council  that  up  to  the 
previous  Saturday  the  town  was  without 
a  flag  to  display  upon  the  Town  Hall, 
and  that  it  had  lacked  the  proper  material 
for  draping  the  councilmanic  chambers. 
Then  A.  A.  Hardenbergh,  "at  the  bank," 
had  come  to  the  rescue  by  advancing 
$130,  which  the  Council  promptly  and 
unanimously  voted  to  reimburse  to  Mr. 
Hardenbergh,  with  thanks  of  the  Council. 

At  that  meeting,  there  were  present 
John  Hilton  and  Councilmen  Bowkei, 
Hardenbergh,  Hutchings,  Smith  and  G. 
Van  Horn:  absent  Brmkerhoff  and  J.  C. 
Van  Horn.  The  formal  reading  of  the 
call  for  the  meeting,  signed  by  A.  A. 
Hardenbergh  and  Garret  Van  Horn,  and 
reciting  the  circumstances  of  the  tragedy 
and  askmg  for  a  citizen's  meeting,  being 
concluded,  a  committee  from  the  council 
■was  appointed,  consisting  of  Councilmen 
Hutchings  from  Columbia  ward ;  Smith 
from   Franklin  ward ;    Hardenbergh   from 

Communipaw  ward;  and  Garret  Van  Horn.  The  Board  of  Education 
was  requested  to  dismiss  the  schools,  in  order  that  the  children  might 
participate  in  the  ceremonies.  A  committee  of  citizens  was  also  ap- 
pointed by  John  Hilton  to  escort  the  body  of  the  President  across  the 
river  when  it  passed  through  here  on  the  way  west.  This  committee 
consisted  of  John  M.  Cornelison,  Hartman  Van  Wagenen,  Cornelius 
C.  Van  Reypen,  Edgar  B.  Wakeman,  Capt.  E.  C.  Hopper,  George 
Gifford,  Mindert  Van  Horn,  Jeremiah  D.  Cleveland  and  Wm.  Keeny. 

April  19,  1865,  in  Bergen  was  a  day  of  "balmy,  vernal  sunshine; 
the  beauty  of  the  loveliest  day  of  opening  Springtime  was  about  us; 
but  the  shadow  of  the  wings  of  the  angel  of  death  seemed  to  darken 
all  the  land."  Commerce  was  everywhere  silent;  the  Times  notes  with 
especial  pleasure  that  all  liquor  saloons  were  closed;  all  places  of  public 
resort  were  deserted ;  the  whole  neighborhood  was  sombre  in  habiliments 
of  woe. 

The   commemoration    services   were   inaugurated   by   a   procession 

39 


John  Hilton 


A  NATlO^^  HOIJMS 

THE  DEPARTED 
PATRIOT, 

STATESMAN, 
And  MARTYR. 


|i^=?'/7 


^s^^ 


w 


Bom  Feb.  12tli,  1809, 
Died  April  15th,  1S65. 


that  started  at  Prospect  Hall  at  the  western  side  of  the  junction  of 
Jewett,  Storms  and  Fairmount  Avenues,  just  south  of  the  present  residence 
of  James  E.  Pope,  at  about  2  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  then 
marched  to  the  grounds  of  Alex.  Bonnell  on  Park  Street.  There  were 
1 , 1 00  school  children  in  the  procession ;  and  every  time  I  pass  what 
they  used  to  call  "Aleck  Bonnell's  orchard,"  I  like  to  think  of  that 
stately  building  which  our  friend  John  T.  Rowland  has  designed  as 
the  Lincoln  High  School,  as  a  fit  and  beautiful  memorial  with  which 
Jersey  City  has  perpetuated  that  meeting  of  those  who  first  honored 
Lmcoln  there. 

Of  course  no  real  civic  function  in  those  times  would  be  complete 
■without  the  firemen,  so  all  the  Bergen  companies  were  out  in  full  force 
and  uniform.  The  firemen,  as  well  as  the  school  children,  wore  special 
mourning  badges,  and  I  have  one  of  each  of  these,  doubtless  the  only 
ones  now  extant.      Then   there  were  the   councilmanic   committee,    the 


40 


Board  of  Education,  and  citizens  in  general,  altogether  some  3,000 
people,  not  counting  the  school  children.  A  pavilion  had  been  erected, 
and,  advancing  to  the  front  of  the  platform.  Marshal  Garret  Vreeland 
announced  Dr.  John  M.  Cornelison  as  president,  and  John  Hilton, 
Henry  Fitch,  John  G.  Parker,  E.  B.  Wakeman,  A.  P.  St.  John  and 
M.  S.  Allison  as  vice-presidents  of  the  meeting.  The  council  committee, 
consisting  of  John  Hilton,  R.  L.  Smith,  Garret  Van  Horn,  Henry 
Fitch,  Harrison  Price,  Walter  Storm,  A.  L.  MacDuff,  Garret  Vreeland, 
E.  B.  Wakeman,  Wm.  Keeny,  J.  B.  Cleveland  and  A.  A.  Woodward 
had  seats  reserved  for  them  inside  the  railing. 

First  the  audience  sang  Cowper's 
hymn,  "God  moves  in  a  Mysterious 
Way;"  Abraham  Speer  led  them 
out  there  under  the  budding  trees. 
Then  Rev.  Dr.  B.  C.  Taylor  of 
Bergen  Reformed  Church  offered  a 
prayer.  Rev.  E.  W.  French  of  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Bergen 
followed  with  an  address,  of  finely 
phrased  patriotic  spirit.  The  school 
children  sang  "America"  next.  Rev. 
S.  Y.  Monroe  followed  with  an  ad- 
dress which  kept  the  audience  "con- 
stantly beaming  sympathy  with  the 
tenderness,  courage,  hopefulness,  and 
piety  of  the  martyred   President." 

A.  A.  Hardenbergh  was  the  last 
speaker,  and  he  gave  an  address  which 
was  noted  as  dealing  masterfully  with 
the  spirit  of  the  occasion  and  the  char- 
acter of  the  man  for  whom  they  had 
come  there  to  mourn.     The  concluding 

prayer  was  offered  by  Rev.  W.  R.  Duryea  of  the  Lafayette  Reformed 
Church;  in  his  petition  he  returned  especial  thankfulness  for  the  fact  of 
Andrew  Johnson  because  he  would  punish  the  traitors  who  had  per- 
petrated the  murder  of  the  President.  Then  with  the  audience  standing, 
the  Doxology  was  sung  by  the  audience,  and  the  Benediction  pro- 
nounced by  Rev.  Mr.  Monroe. 

The  Bergen  Town  Council  minutes  have  saved  a  very  nice  little 
note  of  this  meeting  for  us:  the  entire  cost  of  the  commemoration  service 

41 


Bev.  B.  C.  Taylor 


was  $500.  The  bills  were  ordered  paid,  and  then  a  resolution  was 
passed,  testifying  to  the  efficiency  of  John  Hilton  and  his  committee 
in  organizing  and  carrying  out  the  purposes  of  the  meeting  in  such 
dignified  and  capable  a  manner.  This  was  ordered  spread  in  full 
upon  the  minutes. 

And  before  we  leave  Lincoln  High  School  grounds  again — 
should  it  not  be  an  inspiration  to  those  of  this  generation  who  have 
the  high  privilege  and  opportunity  to  sit  within  the  classic  bounds  of 
Aleck.  Bonnell's  orchard,  to  recall  that  fine  gathering  in  I  865  ?  The 
whole  town  had  turned  out  to  honor  the  memory  of  a  man  who  had 
certain  advanced  notions  about  human  liberty  and  national  life;  and 
in  all  the  years  ever  since  in  Jersey  City  the  Lincoln  Association 
has  nobly  kept  those  ideals  before  the  people  of  its  own  times,  as  no  other 
institution  has  done. 


The  New  Another  potential    factor  in  crystallizing   the   Lincoln  Association 

England  that  was  to  be,  has  been  pointed  out  with  especial  directness  by  those 
Societies  of  our  political  fellow-citizens  who  did  not  like  the  New  Englanders. 
It  is  rather  difficult  for  us  of  this  generation  to  visualize  anything  like 
a  friendly  feeling  in  remarks  like  those  printed  in  the  local  newspapers, 
and  to  which  I  have  already  referred  at  some  length.  "The  fact  is 
that  Yankee  blood  is  not  pure;  it  is  more  than  half  nigger,"  said  the 
Telegraph  in  1857.  The  New  Englanders  had  come  to  Jersey  City 
a  score  ot  years  before  the  Civil  War  and  brought  their  New  England 
ideals  with  them,  ideals  which  might  be  said  in  all  candor  to  be  some- 
what opposed  to  those  of  the  Telegraph  and  its  brand  of  kultur. 

How  important  a  part  these  Yankees  played  in  the  making  of 
the  Lincoln  sentiment  in  Jersey  City  may  be  surmised  by  a 
casual  reading  of  the  biographical  sketches  in  various  local  historical 
and  biographical  publications.  Men  from  New  England  filled  our 
pulpits,  taught  our  schools,  healed  our  sick,  kept  our  stores,  and  in- 
fluenced our  political  destinies.  By  the  middle  '50's  there  were  enough 
of  these  New  Englanders  in  our  midst  who  were  touched  by  that  age- 
old  weakness,  home-longing,  to  organize  a  New  England  Society  of 
Jersey  City.  At  the  centre  of  the  movement  was  a  young  man  named 
Alfrederick  Smith  Hatch;  he  came  here  from  Burlington,  Vermont, 
and  was  first  a  clerk  in,  and  in  1  857,  cashier  of  the  Bank  of  Jersey  City, 
then  located  on  part  of  the  site  now  occupied  by  our  Federal  Building. 
In  passing,  it  will  not  be  without  interest  to  observe  that  his  income  was 
published  in  the  Government  tax  list  of  1864  as  $75,000.     Mr.  Hatch 

42 


as  a  young  man  was  given  to  a  devotion  to  what  he  believed  to  be 
high-principled  things.  One  of  them  was  a  native  abhorrence  of  the 
institution  of  slavery.  About  the  same  time  Lincoln's  name  was  men- 
tioned— just  barely  mentioned — in  connection  with  Douglas'  in  those 
debates,  Mr.  Hatch  got  into  a  local  row  on  the  same  question;  the 
Telegraph  let  him  off  with  something  like  this:  "Much  is  to  be  allowed 
for  the  extravagant  assertions  of  a  man  of  Mr.  Hatch's  peculiarly 
excitable  temperament  and  strong  anti-slavery  feeling." 

Mr.  Hatch  was  organizer,  speaker,  treasurer,  and  general  utility 
man  for  the  New  England  Society  of  Jersey  City,  now  a  forgotten, 
unknown  institution.  Somewhere  in  a  Jersey  City  attic  stored  away 
in  an  old  trunk,  I  have  no  doubt  there  is  a  bunch  of  dinner-cards, 
or  newspaper  clippings,  or  something  from  which  that  torn-out  page  of 
our  local  history  may  be  reconstructed.  The  first  dinner  of  the  Society 
was  held  on  Forefathers'  Day,  December  22,  1857,  in  Lyceum  Hall, 
and  eight  years  afterward  (at  the  dinner  of  1865)  one  of  the  speakers, 
growing  reminiscent,  lets  us  into  the  secret  of  a  turbulent  scene  at  the 
original  dinner  when  somebody  who   had  been  invited  to   eat,   started 

to  fight,  "but  one  of  our  New  England  brethren,  Mr.  P boldly 

stepped  into  the  arena  and  unhorsed  him  at  the  first  encounter."  There 
is  a  very  broad  insinuation  that  the  trouble  arose  over  the  elaborate 
divergence  of  political  views  held  by  the  forensic  combatants. 

If  I  came  from  Vermont,  instead  of  Pennsylvania,  to  Jersey  City, 
I  think  I  should  never  cease  to  remind  this  town  of  what  it  owed  to 
its  Green  Mountain  ancestry.  First  and  foremost  was  Wm.  L.  Dick- 
inson, who  came  here  from  the  University  of  Vermont,  to  found  a 
select  school  for  boys  in  the  Lyceum  building  in  1839,  and  who 
became  the  father  of  our  educational  system,  as  well  as  of  an  interesting 
family.  He,  too,  was  one  of  the  New  England  Society  folk  who  did 
not  have  far  to  go  when  Lincolnian  platforms  were  to  be  reached. 
Dr.  Wheelock  H.  Parmly,  Rev.  Hiram  Mattison,  Rev.  John  Hanlon 
— all  Vermonters — were  great  spiritual  lights  in  their  day  and  generation, 
and  their  names  appear  at  many  a  function  of  the  New  England  Society. 

The  newspaper  literature  of  the  second  annual  dinner  of  the 
Society,  in  1  859,  gives  us  some  of  the  names  of  people  who  were  active 
participants:  David  Gould,  president,  48  Essex  St;  W.  L.  Dickinson, 
158  Wayne  St;  H.  C.  Dickinson,  234  York  St.;  A.  S.  Hatch, 
treasurer,  52  Grand  St.;  Joel  C.  Lane,  45  Grand  St.;  E.  H.  Rockwell, 
secretary,  228  York  St.;  W.  H.  Talcott,  61  Grand  St.;  Samuel  L. 
Pearson.   1  79  Grand  St.;  Harvey  Fisk,  254  South  5th  St.     The  New 

i?, 


Englanders  had  plenty  else  to  do  in  Jersey  City  for  the  next  few  years — 
and  this  is  one  of  my  reasons  for  elaborating  upon  the  theme  of  a  New- 
England  Society  before  the  Lincoln  Association — and  they  announced 
that  their  celebration  for  1  865  would  be  held  in  Taylor's  Hotel,  and 
open  to  all  those  "residents  of  Jersey  City  honored  by  birth  in  New 
England  or  born  of  New  England  parentage.  *  *  *  Their 
Society  had  been  honored  by  the  maledictions  of  secessionists  and  cop- 
perheads; now  that  the  principles  they  stood   for  had  been  so  signally 


W.   L.   Dickinson  and   iiis  family  about   1836. 
(The  boy   in  short    skirts  was  later  president  of  the  Lincoln  Association.) 

vindicated  they  proposed  to  resume  their  annual  dinners  which  had  been 
suspended  since  1860."  I  can  find  but  a  few  names  mentioned  as 
among  the  throng  who  attended  it.  Rev.  Dr.  Parmly,  Rev.  Dr.  Mattison, 
Rev.  John  Milton  Holmes,  Jacob  Weart,  S.  B.  Ransom,  A.  S.  Hatch 
and  Miss  Sarah  Gould  were  among  the  speakers.  Wm.  E.  Pearson, 
J.  W.  Pangborn,  S.  B.  Ransom  and  D.  S.  Gregory,  Jr.,  were  on  the 
committee  that  year. 

The  "special  correspondent"  of  the  Times  dated  a  letter  from  a 
place  called  Bergen,  late  in  I  865,  in  which  the  startling  news  is  suggested 
that    the   Yankees    had    not   only   taken    Jersey   City,    but    that   hilltop 

44 


stronghold  of  the  Dutch  as  well.  For  there  was  a  New  England 
Society  of  Bergen  in  1865,  that  met  that  year  for  its  repast  of  pumpkin 
pie,  doughnuts,  walnuts  and  roast  turkey,  at  the  residence  of  its  vice- 
president,  E.  Bliss.  The  gallant  Major  Henry  Gaines  responded  to 
the  toast  "The  Daughters  of  New  England;"  E.  Bliss,  "New  England 
Homes  on  Bergen  Hill;"  T.  H.  Bennet,  "Yankee  Enterprise;"  and 
others.  From  the  reports  of  its  dinners  in  later  years,  I  glean  the  names 
of  John  G.  Parker,  president;  A.  A.  Woodward,  vice-president;  R. 
B.  Seymour,  secretary;  Henry  Gaines,  treasurer;  Col.  G.  W.  I  home, 
revenue  collector  for  this  district;  E.  B.  Wakeman,  Edw.  Doolittle, 
A.  G.  Avery,  J.  M.  Barrows,  Charles  Butrie,  Captain  Howe,  T.  J. 
Kimball. 

A  great  many  of  these  New  England  names  have  now  faded 
from  Jersey  City  history,  too,  but  the  men  who  bore  them  were  here  long 
enough  to  play  a  splendid  part  in  the  dramatic  events  of  their  generation. 
It  seems  impossible  to  separate  their  allegiance  as  New  Englanders  from 
the  cause  for  which  Lincoln's  life  was  lived;  and  I  am  sure  we  can 
all  pay  our  tribute  from  "this  distant  shore  of  time"  to  their  superb 
loyalty  in  the  city  of  their  adoption  in  those  dark  days  of  the  war. 

Now  one  might  presume,  even  if  he  were  not  gifted  with  extra-  Reconstruc- 
ordinary  powers  of  imagination,  that  the  reconstruction  period  should  tion  Days 
have  witnessed  a  wholesale  abandonment  of  the  old  vituperative  spirit. 
The  assassination  of  the  President  was  followed  by  a  wave  of  horror 
and  repugnance;  those  who  directly  or  indirectly,  nearly  or  remotely, 
aided  or  abetted  or  condoned  the  crime  should  have  turned  over  a 
new  page  in  their  history.  But  did  they?  We  can  not  begin  to  com- 
prehend such  an  alignment  of  our  own  people  in  those  years,  but  most 
of  us  of  to-day  know  a  little  about  a  certain  national  psychology. 

For  a  generation  before  the  Civil  War,  as  I  have  pointed  out, 
unbridled  license  of  speech  and  absolute  intolerance  with  others'  political 
opinions  were  rampant;  the  dogma  of  State's  Rights  and  all  its  corollary 
heresies  had  obsessed  the  political  factors  of  the  nation.  But  do  you 
suppose  for  one  minute  that  people's  souls  were  converted  by  the  tragedy 
of  that  Good  Friday  night  of  1865?  One  does  not  dispossess  himself 
of  the  teachings,  traditions  and  training  of  a  lifetime  quite  so  easily 
as  he  does  of  his  worn  out  underwear.  Unrepentant,  unabashed,  un- 
ashamed the  ancient  policies  of  obstructionism  and  destruction  were  pur- 
sued to  a  nauseating  degree.  And  the  fiery  Major  Pangborn  pilloried 
them  with  his  splendid  powers  of  invective  and  scorn.  The  period 
of  the  "bloody  shirt"  was  on,  and  the  newspaper  history  and  the  oratory 
of  the  Lincoln  Association  blazes  with  it. 


4h 


June  1.  1865,  was  appointed  by  President  Johnson  as  a  Lincoln 
Memorial  and  Fast  Day.  The  big  observance  of  the  day  was  naturally 
where  the  biggest  crowd  could  be  gathered,  in  the  Tabernacle.  Mr. 
Holmes  was  at  his  best,  and  the  Times  applauded  him  tremendously 
the  next  day  for  it.  In  it  he  told  many  anecdotes  about  Lincoln,  one 
of  them  related  to  him  by  a  widow  in  Jersey  City  with  two  sons,  one 
mortally  wounded  and  the  other  badly  hurt  at  Gettysburg.  The  mother 
tried  in  vain  to  have  one  of  the  boys  sent  home  to  her,  but  she  could 
not  secure  his  discharge;  so  she  finally  went  to  Washington  and  did 
the  amazing  thing  of  reaching  the  President  and  getting  a  note  from  him 

like  this:   "Let  Edwin  F.   P ,  named  in  my  note  on  the  other 

half  of  this  sheet  be  discharged — A.  Lincoln."  The  widow  showed 
Mr.  Holmes  the  letter  and  told  him  how  "he  spoke  to  me  as  though 
I  had  been  his  mother."  I  should  like  to  know  who  "Edwin  F. 
P "  was,  and  the  mother  who  was  so  honored. 

Now  just  to  show  the  contrast,  here  was  the  Standard's  reaction. 
Lincoln  was  not  so  very  long  dead  in  June,  I  865 ;  the  Standard  was 
running  a  number  of  intended-to-be  facetious  articles  entitled  "Spelling 
Lessons  for  Youth."  In  one  of  the  lists  of  words,  "T-a-b-e-r-n-a-c-1-e. 
a  large  hall  much  used  for  political  elocution,"  was  the  funny  crack  at 
the  place  where  Mr.  Holmes  had  paid  his  tribute  to  the  great  President. 
The  following  October  9th,  Anne  E.  Dickinson  gave  a  lecture  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Children's  Home  there.  Her  subject  was  rather  suggestive 
of  what  would  happen  when  you  chucked  a  match  into  a  gunpowder 
can:  "The  Record  of  the  Democratic  Party  during  the  Rebellion." 
And  it  happened.  She  opened  her  address  with  a  reference  to  the 
"exigencies  which  called  a  woman  from  her  wonted  sphere  to  enter 
the  loathsome  charnel  house  of  the  democratic  party."  In  a  long  account 
of  the  lecture,  or  harangue  as  the  Standard  called  it,  the  lecturer  was 
alluded  to  as  "Gentle  Anna,"  "a  gentleman  of  the  female  persuasion," 
"a  fair  pythoness ;  words  of  bitterness  crawled  from  her  red  and  beautiful 
lips  like  foul  spiders  crawling  from  the  blushing  petals  of  a  rose."  And 
so  on,  "We  say  nothing,"  concluded  the  Standard,  "of  the  questionable 
taste  of  turning  the  pulpit  into  the  stump,  further  than  that  the  fact  of 
our  Saviour  having  been  cradled  in  a  manger  is  no  reason  why  a  church 
edifice  should  be  transmogrified  into  a  stable." 

The  civic  side  of  the  Fourth  of  July  celebration  was  arranged  for 
the  Tabernacle  that  year  (1865).  Arrangements  had  been  made  by 
Alderman  McBride  for  the  function,  and  the  whole  affair  was  written 
up  by  the  editor  of  the  Standard  beforehand — but  it  didn't  happen  at 
all.     In  their  minute  book  may  still  be  seen  the  provision  made  by  the 


46 


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The  Inaugural  Hall  of  1861.      Major  Parifihorn  was  one  of  its  managers.      His  name  appears  third  <-oIniMU 
from  the  right,  tenth  name  counting  up  from  the  hottom. 


trustees  that  the  permission  was  to  be  re- 
voked if  the  orator  was  not  acceptable 
to  them.  The  Times  said  that  the  Munici- 
pal celebration  consisted  of  a  procession 
by  Mayor  Cleveland  and  Alderman  Gaf- 
ney.  The  Congregationalists  were  still 
choice,  it  seems,  about  their  reputation  as 
Lincolnians. 


From  this  perspective  of  years,  I  think 
it  may  be  stated  without  fear  of  success- 
ful contradiction  that  the  most  forceful 
character  in  Jersey  City  for  the  largest 
part  of  his  life  here  was  Major  Z.  K. 
Pangborn.  His  contribution  to  the  public 
life  of  his  times  was  a  civic  asset  that  no 
man  can  truly  measure.  He  came  here 
shortly  before  the  Civil  War  closed,  I 
have  been  informed  by  David  R.  Daly,  at 

Major  Zebina  Kellogg  Pangborn  i        .  r    i  i  r-v      11  o      /^ 

the  mstance  or  Hon.  Dudley  o.  Gregory, 
and  his  immediate  identification  with  the  Times  meant  the  co-ordination 
of  his  unique  talents  as  a  newspaper  man  with  high  opportunity  for 
public  service. 

Mighty  few  people  appreciate  his  real  greatness;  they  remember 
the  closing  years  of  his  life  with  much  more  vividness  than  they  do 
his  dauntless,  virile  young  manhood ;  and  when  the  real  historian  of 
Jersey  City  comes,  I  well  know  whom  he  will  honor.  He  had  a  most 
intense  detestation  of  anything  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  the  Union  and 
a  regard  for  Lincoln  that  transcended  veneration.  Through  the  courtesy 
of  Mr.  Geo.  H.  Blake,  I  am  able  to  present  a  very  tangible  and  in- 
teresting souvenir  of  his  association  with  affairs  Lincolnian :  he  was  one 
of  the  committee  of  arrangements  for  the  first  Lincoln  inaugural  ball 
in  1861. 

The  Major's  likes  and  dislikes  were  always  open;  that  was  his 
character.  And  he  could  wither  an  opponent  with  irony,  or  curl  him 
up  with  the  scorn  of  his  logic.  For  example,  he  disliked  Dickens,  for 
some  reason,  although  "chawming  Chawles'  "  reputation  managed  to 
survive  that;  and  he  made  fun  of  Matthew  Arnold  when  that  philosopher 
came  to  Jersey  City.  He  had  rather  pronounced  aversions  in  certain 
sectarian  directions,  which  he  was  never  careful  to  conceal.  These 
things   seem   humorous,    perhaps,   but   when   you   see   them   recorded  in 

48 


his  diary — the  Times,  and  then  the  Journal — day  after  day,  year  after 
year,  you  get  a  splendid  estimate  of  his  sterhng  purposes  and  the 
openness,  vigor  and  earnestness  he  used  in  effecting  them.  So,  when 
the  time  came  that  he  could  use  his  extraordinary  intellectual  equipment 
to  such  an  end  he  joined — he  was,  in  a  large  measure — the  Lincoln 
Association. 


I  have  gone  through  a  great  many  column  miles  of  the  history  of    The  Year 
Jersey  City,  as  her  contemporary  newspapers  have  written  it ;    I   hope   of  the 
I  have  succeeded  in  conveying  the  inpression  by  the  few  samples  of   Founding 
local  color  printed  on  previous  pages  that  there  was  urgent  need  of  a 
Lincoln   Association    in    1865,    the   year   apparently    indicated    by    the 
present  literature  of   the  Association  as   that  of   its   founding.      But    I 
regret  to  say  that  I  can  find  no  documentary  evidence  of  the  organization 
of  the  Lincoln  Association  or  of  its  doings  earlier  than  February    12, 
1867,  and  I  quote  no  less  an  authority  for  the  statement  that  that  was 
the  date  of  its  founding,  than  Major  Z.  K.  Pangborn  himself. 

In  the  third  number  of  the  newly  established  Journal,  on  May  4, 
1867,  the  story  of  its  permanent  organization  was  printed,  and  the  date 
of  the  previous  February  12th  was  specifically  named;  further  con- 
firmation of  this  is  supplied  in  another  story  in  the  Journal,  the  following 
December,  in  these  words:  "The  Association  was  formed  on  Feb- 
ruary 12th  last  (1867),  the  anniversary  of  the  birthday  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  by  eight  gentlemen  who  met  socially  and,  after  a  discussion 
of  the  subject,  voted  to  organize  as  a  Lincoln  Association  which  should 
commemorate  the  birthday  of  the  lamented  President  and  in  other  ways 
seek  to  cherish  the  memory  of  his  virtues  and  public  services.  Since 
that  date  regular  monthly  meetings  have  been  held,  and  occasional 
extra  meetings,  all  of  which  have  been  pleasant  and  profitable."  At 
that  time  (December  24,   1867),  the  Association  numbered  forty-three 

members. 

The  meeting   for  permanent   organization   above   referred    to   was 

held  at  Zschau's  Union  House,  146  Newark  Avenue,  on  May  3,  1867. 

The   following   officers  were   elected:       President,    David   W.    Weiss; 

vice-president,    Benjamin    Russell;    secretary,    William    B.     Dunning; 

treasurer.  Earl  P.  Lane ;  steward,  Charles  A.  Zschau.     At  that  meeting 

the  following  new  members  were  elected:      Hon.  James  Gopsill,  Maj. 

Z.  K.  Pangborn,  Capt.  Charles  H.  Laning,  Dr.  Adolphus  Kirsten,  Dr. 

Selnow,  William  W.   Ward,  Louis  Tetens,   James  C.  Orr,  John  W. 

Pangborn,  Henry  T.  Lee,  George  H.  Whipple,  Allen  T.  Waterman, 

and  Prof.  Charles  Larwell. 

49 


Judge  Stephen  Quaife 


From  other  sources  I  have  gleaned  the 
names  of  the  little,  yet  memorable,  com- 
pany \shich  met  at  Zschau's  on  February 
12,  1867,  for  what  people  then  thought 
was  the  first  formal  celebration  by  a 
Lincoln  Association:  David  W.  Weiss. 
Benjamin  Russell,  Earl  P.  Lane,  Prof. 
Charles  Knowles,  Charles  Baker,  Dietrich 
is.uhn,  Peter  Kolb,  and  C.  A.  Zschau. 
Mr.  Kolb  contributed  some  German  songs 
to  the  festivity  of  that  historic  occasion. 
If  this  present  publication  will  call  forth 
any  authentic  records  of  any  earlier  meet- 
ings, I  am  sure  the  historian  of  the  Lincoln 
Association  will  be  proud  to  add  them  to 
his  archives. 

There  was  a  meeting  of  the  Association 
April  15,  1867,  attended  by  about  100 
persons,  whose  names  were  not  considered 
important  enough  by  the  reporter  for  the 
Times  to  get  into  print,  save  that  of  Judge 
Stephen  Quaife,  whose  singing  procured  for  him  that  distinction. 
Then  came  the  organization  meeting  of  May  3rd.  In  its  report  of  the 
semi-annual  meeting  of  September  5,  1867,  the  Journal  informs  us  that 
this  gathering  was  held  in  "their  rooms  at  Zschau's,  Newark  Avenue." 
The  event  of  that  evening  was  the  presentation  to  the  president,  D. 
W.  Weiss,  Esq.,  of  an  elegant  photograph  album  containing  the  like- 
nesses of  all  the  members  of  the  Association.  The  presentation  speech 
was  made  by  Major  Pangborn,  at  the  request  of  the  members.  Has 
anybody  who  reads  this  ever  seen  that  album?  Brief  speeches  were 
also  made  by  Capt.  A.  S.  Cloke,  Benj.  Van  Riper,  Benjamin  Russell, 
W.  W.  Ward,  Earl  P.  Lane,  Dr.  Adolphus  Kirsten.  Capt.  William 
B.  Dunning  and  others.  Mr.  Larwell's  excellent  singing  was  commented 
upon  in  the  paper,  and  so  was  the  generous  collation  where  "the  wines 
flowed   freely." 

At  the  next  meeting,  on  October  3,  1867,  the  proceedings  were 
along  the  line  of  commemorating  the  emancipation  proclamation.  The 
company  gathered  at  Zschau's,  as  usual.  Benjamin  Van  Riper  made 
an  eloquent  speech,  in  the  course  of  which  he  recited  T.  Buchanan 
Read's  "Sheridan's  Ride;  "  then  Capt.  Albert  S.  Cloke,  one  of  "Little 
Phil's"  troopers,  gave  some  personal  reminiscences  of  the  great  cavalry 

50 


leader.  Other  speakers  were  Allen  T.  Waterman,  William  W.  Ward. 
Capt.  Wm.  B.  Dunning  and  Joseph  Acton.  Benjamin  Russell  gives 
an  interesting  bit  of  background  for  having  made  a  red-hot  speech 
denouncing  the  "treason"  of  Andrew  Johnson.  Professors  Larwell 
and  Knowles  rendered  musical  selections,  and  Messrs.  Waters  and 
Zschau  told  some  Lincoln  stories.  The  Journal  does  not  state  what 
was  the  hour  when  Carl  turned  out  the  lights,  but  it  must  have  been 
on  the  morning  after.  On  Thursday,  November  7th,  there  was  another 
informal  meeting  "and  the  proceedings  were,  as  usual,  interesting."  Judge 
Hough,  Mr.  Steele,  Captain  Cloke  and  Benjamin  Van  Riper  were  the 
speakers. 

One  may  naturally  be  prepared  by 
these  reports  of  late  hours  and  probable 
convivialities  for  the  announcement  of  that 
famous  ball  by  the  Lincoln  Association. 
The  Lincolnians'  ladies  were  included  in 
that  function,  which  was  held  on  Christ- 
mas eve,  1  867,  in  Library  Hall,  that  class- 
ical building  yet  standing  at  the  corner  of 
Summit  Avenue  and  Grand  Street.  Dod- 
worth's  band  furnished  the  superb  music ; 
at  1 0  o'clock  they  played  the  opening 
march  "Grand  Entree,  Lincoln"  and  at 
5  in  the  morning  they  wound  up  with 
"Home,  Sweet  Home."  For  some 
reason,  individual  toilettes  were  not 
described,  although  we  are  assured 
that    the    beautiful    ladies    and    their    dresses    were    most     bewitching. 

It  seems  curious  that  the  Journal  found  it  necessary  to  incorporate 
in  its  story  of  the  dance  the  statement  that  no  liquor  was  sold  or 
obtainable  on  the  premises  or  nearby.  Champagne,  of  course,  did 
not  count,  for  another  sentence  tells  us  that  that  was  served  at  the  supper, 
free  for  those  who  chose  to  use  it,  just  like  ice  water.  Mr.  Green  was 
the  capable  caterer.  Benjamin  Van  Riper  was  floor  manager;  he  was 
assisted  by  William  W.  Ward,  Joseph  Acton,  and  James  C.  Orr.  The 
reception  committee  was  William  B.  Dunning,  C.  A.  Zschau,  and  E. 
P.  Lane.  Some  of  these  days,  I  hope  to  find  one  of  the  orders  of 
dancing  which  some  sweet  Jersey  City  girl  may  have  laid  away  with 
a  little  faded  flower  in  memory  of  that  glorious  night ! 

On  Thursday,  February  6,  1 868,  the  Association  held  their 
regular  monthly,   as  well   as  the  annual,    meeting  of  members  at  their 


Libr 


Hall. 


ol 


UNIVERSITY  01- 
tLINOIS  LIBRARY 


rooms  at  Zschau's.  The  Journal  was  so  excited  over  a  distinction 
paid  to  Capt.  Dunning  that  it  overlooked  such  unimportant  details  as 
telling  us  of  the  progress  of  the  big  dinner  or  who  was  elected  to  the 
officiate  of  the  Association.  The  Captain  was  made  the  recipient 
of  a  heavy  hunting  case  gold  watch  bearing  this  inscription:  "From 
the  Lincoln  Association  of  Jersey  City  to  their  Secretary,  William  B. 
Dunning,  February  6,  1868."  The  Journal  continues:  "The  pre- 
sentation was  followed  by  certain  agreeable  exercises — bibulous,  gus- 
tatory and  social.  We  congratulate  our  associate  upon  having  been  thus 
watched  to  some  purpose.  We  have  always  found  him  on  time  and  have 
no  doubt  he  will  be  as  much  so  as  ever.  The  only  possible  objection  we 
could  have  to  the  affair  being  a  slight  apprehension  that  he  may  be 
induced  to  run  on  tick,  which  is  not  according  to  the  Evening  Journals 
rules  of  procedure." 

That  Great  For  some  weeks  of  December  and  January,    1  867-8,  the  Journal 

Dinner  of     gives  us  many  illuminating  suggestions  as  to  the  prospects  for  the  forth- 
'68  coming   function,  which  was  referred  to,  quite  as  a  matter  of  course, 

as  the  first  real  Lincoln  dinner.  Dear  only  knows  how  many  Lincoln 
dinners  had  been  absorbed  on  all  sorts  of  occasions  that  offered  excuse 
for  congregating,  but  this  was  to  be  the  great  dinner.  There  were 
300  tickets  issued  at  $5  each;  there  were  to  be  wonders  of  cuisine; 
a  feast  of  reason  and  a  flow  of  soul  such  as  Jersey  City  had  never 
before  contemplated.  Four  sets  of  committees  were  at  work:  In- 
vitation— Albert  S.  Cloke,  Z.  K.  Pangborn,  Daniel  McLeod,  Joseph 
Acton  and  Adolphus  Kirsten.  Reception — Benjamin  Russell,  James 
Gopsill,  William  B.  Dunning,  John  Ramsey,  and  LeRoy  Schermerhorn. 
Banquet — Benjamin  Van  Riper,  William  W.  Ward,  Earl  P.  Lane, 
Jacob  M.  Merseles  and  Charles  H.  Laning.  Music — Dudley  S. 
Gregory,  Jr.,  P.  Bethune  Steele,  Edward  Reimal,  Charles  A.  Zschau, 
John  Hough  and  Theodore  Baker.  Sentiments — David  W.  Weiss, 
Charles  Larwell,  James  Doxey,  James  C,  Orr  and  Eugene  Knowles. 

It  took  several  issues  of  the  Journal,  commencing  with  Tuesday, 
February  1  3,  1  868,  to  tell  the  wonders  of  this,  the  first  great  banquet 
of  the  Lincoln  Association  of  Jersey  City.  There  were  1 3  formal 
toasts.  David  W.  Weiss  presided  with  becoming  dignity  and  suavity; 
Col.  Gregory's  Glee  Club  made  the  banquet  hall  ring  with  their  patriotic 
songs ;  the  7 1  st  Regiment  band  rendered  superb  selections.  Altogether 
the  report  is  spread  out  over  a  dozen  columns,  and  certainly  no  one 
could  question  the  fact  that  the  Lincoln  Association  had  arrived  then ! 
Rev.   Dr.   H.  A.   Cordo  of  the  North  Baptist  Church  invoked  Divine 


blessing  on  the  sumptuous  meal,  and  then  they  were  all  off  for  an  hour 
and  a  half. 

Secretary  William  B.  Dunning  read  the  letters  and  telegrams 
received  from  distinguished  men  who  might  have  been  guests;  such 
folk  as  Robert  T.  Lincoln,  Schuyler  Colfax,  Henry  Wilson,  Secretary 
Edwin  M.  Stanton,  Lieutenant-General  W.  T.  Sherman,  John  A. 
Logan  and  many  other  notables  who  were  cheered  to  the  echo  as  their 
messages  were  read  to  the  company.  The  report  tells  us  that  although 
it  was  the  design  to  exclude  all  strictly  political  matters,  "we  noticed 
that  every  allusion  to  General  Grant  called  out  the  heartiest  cheers." 
The  General  was  elected  President  the  following  November. 

With  a  fine  reminiscent  sense,  the  governors  of  the  37th  annual  ban- 
quet in  1  902  reprinted  that  remarkable  list  of  toasts  responded  to  in  I  868. 
in  the  dinner  souvenir  of  that  year,  and  the  printer  started  it  off  in  bold- 
face type  "24  years  ago;"  it  should  have  been  "34  years  ago" — but  the 
blunder  isn't  so  flagrant,  considering  the  thing  they  intended  to  per- 
petuate. In  passing,  a  couple  of  other  curious  slips  are  noticed  in  going 
through  these  old  records.  For  example,  there  were  two  "2  I  st  annual 
banquets;"  one  in  1886,  and  another  in  1887;  there  was  no  23rd, 
perhaps  for  that  reason ;  they  jumped  from  the  22d  in  1 888  to  the 
24th  in  1889.  The  13  toasts  of  1868  were  inaugurated  by  Major 
Pangborn:  "To  the  memory  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  whose  birthday 
we  commemorate."  then  came  Hon.  John  Davidson  of  Elizabeth, 
on  "George  Washington;"  Hon.  Dudley  S.  Gregory  on  "The  President 
of  the  United  States" — and  I  think  there  was  perhaps  a  bit  of  a  "frost" 
right  there;  at  any  rate,  Mr.  Gregory  talked  quite  a  bit  about  his  having 
lived  during  the  lives  of  every  one  of  them  since  the  second,  and  not  so 
much  about  Mr.  Johnson.  Charles  H.  Wehle  of  Hoboken  responded 
to  "The  Congress;"  Jacob  Weart,  Esq.,  to  "The  Judiciary;"  Hon. 
Benjamin  Buckley,  of  Paterson,  to  "The  State  of  New  Jersey;"  Col. 
J.  N.  Coyne  to  "The  Army."  There  was  no  one  to  respond  to  "The 
Navy."  Benjamin  Van  Riper,  Esq.  was  most  eloquent  about  "The 
Emancipation  Proclamation;"  "The  Press"  was  handled  pleasantly 
by  Joseph  A.  Dear,  then  connected  with  the  Times.  One  of  the  really 
big  oratorical  events  of  the  evening  was  James  Gopsill's  response  to 
"Jersey  City — cosmopolitan  in  its  character,  Dutch  in  its  origin,  Yankee 
in  its  growth."  Mr.  Gopsill's  speech  seems  to  have  pioneered  along 
pretty  fine  lines,  and  such  abstracts  of  his  address  as  are  preserved 
help  us  to  a  belief  that  the  Jersey  City  of  5  1  years  ago  must  have  had 
some  very  neighborly  people  in  it.      He  was  one  of  the  great  men  of 

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that  generation,   and  his   speeches  on   all  such   occasions  ring  with  the 
finest  type  of  patriotism. 

I  wonder  what  happened  in  1  869 !  There  were  two  dinners  on 
February  12,  that  year,  one  held  in  Cooper's  Hall,  with  150  present, 
and  presided  over  by  Mr.  Weiss.  The  "Jersey  City"  toast  asked  the 
question  "when  shall  we  see  the  day  when  we  shall  hail  the  city  and 
County  of  Hudson?"  A  cane,  a  pair  of  white  kid  gloves  and  a 
pocket  handkerchief  presented  to  Capt.  Benjamin  Richardson  at  Lincoln's 
inauguration  were  shown  at  the  dinner.  That  function  I  am  considering 
the  orthodox  one,  because  it  shows  Mr.  Weiss  was  there.  The  other 
was  smaller,  50  being  present,  and  it  was  held  at  Zschau's.  Capt. 
Dunning  was  reported  as  its  president.  The  current  reports  repeat  the 
facts  about  the  eight  originals,  two  years  before,  and  add  that  they 
solemnly  bound  themselves  to  observe  the  Lincoln  celebration  every 
year  for  life,  and  to  enjoin  the  observance  upon  those  who  came 
after  them.  Isn't  it  an  exquisite  recollection  for  us  tonight,  ourselves  as 
the  inheritors  of  that  fine,  patriotic  compact  away  back  there  across  the 
mists  of  half  a  century! 


Looking  to  The   story   of   the    Lincoln   Association   in   all   its   eventful    years 

the  Future  since  that  famous  first  night  would  hardly  fit  the  title  printed  at  the 
beginning  of  this  essay;  and  so  I  leave  with  you  this  narrative  of  those 
strenuous  days,  and  their  action  and  reaction,  their  turmoil  and  com- 
motion, in  which  were  shaped  men  of  such  great  mold.  We  are  now 
confrontmg  a  time  of  transcendent  import  in  the  history  of  the  world; 
somehow,  it  seems  to  me,  it  ought  to  be  a  splendid  spiritual  stimulus 
to  us  whose  manhood  has  been  lived  in  this  generation,  to  be  better 
fitted  for  our  part  in  the  new  reconstruction,  by  believing  in  the  ideals 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  with  all  our  hearts.  Men  of  our  own  blood, 
of  our  own  firesides  and  friendships,  have  crossed  the  seas  and  faced 
the  din  and  carnage  of  the  most  awful  war  of  all  time,  some  have  given 
"the  last  full  measure  of  devotion" — with  no  other  impulse  than  the 
common  right  of  peoples  to  live  in  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 
So  long  as  there  is  a  spot  on  God's  green  earth  that  is  not  safe  for 
democracy  there  will  be  reason  for  the  perpetuation  of  this  great  impelling 
force  which  has  grown  out  of  "The  'Makings'  of  the  Lincoln 
Association." 


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